The Eighth
by Missroxy87
Summary: Ten years after Carthis, MP & J live in hiding with their family. The Centre still exists, but Lyle is no longer threatening their freedom. But one day a silent enemy coming from their past suddenly appears. Parker and Jarod are forced to remember what happened ten years before, when everything changed… Last update 9.5.19
1. Ten Years

**Disclaimer**

Ok, I do not *own* any of _The Pretender_ characters. But I feel like they became _mine_ , too.

This is going to be another long story, maybe not as long as _Mind Rain_ , but it usually takes me some time to develop things just the way I like them.

The idea came to me when I started to think about the _Red Files_. We never actually knew who they were. All we knew about them was that Angelo, Jarod, Parker and Lyle were 4 of the 8 red files. So, what if we actually discovered who the others were during the show?

 **I won't have a beta reader for this** , so please, be patient with my English and don't be too surprised if you find huge mistakes.

* * *

 **TODAY**

She entered her kitchen with the awareness that this would be a different day.

She had been thinking about it the day before and all night long, while her husband was sleeping right next to her, as he had done for the last ten years.

She was conscious of the fact that he was probably living a very similar inner turmoil, because when she had put his favorite food right under his nose the evening before, he hadn't performed his usual act of eating his portion of meatloaf in two seconds and a half just to have a second one – and she had to admit, she loved to see the children's face whenever their father sat with them for dinner and ate everything faster than a starving hyena.

The night before had been different, for both of them.

' _Well, that's the effect that anniversaries have on both of us_ ', she thought, trying to change her mind on a different subject.

But all her efforts were vain. She couldn't think of anything else.

Ten years before, her life had changed. Drastically.

She sighed and tightened the node that was keeping her robe closed. She inhaled slowly and took a look around. She loved the kitchen, that was the part of the house she preferred.

She remembered that the first time they had made love in that house, it was right there.

A wonderful, perfect, moment of bliss, that she still remembered as the best time they had been together. Ever. She slightly touched the kitchen counter where she was sitting that night, just before he dragged her on the floor, while their first son was sleeping in his bedroom.

A soft smile formed on her lips, just as her husband appeared behind her and put his strong and muscular arms around hers. She couldn't help but feeling aroused by the slight touch on her bare skin, while he lowered her robe to have better access on her neck and put a trail of kisses down her collarbone.

"Ethan will wake up in thirty minutes..." she managed to tell him, her words sounding more like hums.

"So will Katie", he answered her.

"I have to make breakfast…"

He smiled, noticing that her answer was definitely in conflict with the way she was now holding his back to make him come closer to her.

"I don't think our children will get starved if they don't have breakfast just for…one…day…" he told her, moaning the last words to her ear.

She turned around, brushing his lips with hers. She really needed his closeness, but she also wanted to talk about what was going on in her mind.

He felt her hesitation as soon as her lips left his mouth.

"Another sleepless night?" he asked her.

She nodded and sighed, while he made a few steps across the room to lean casually on the wall.

She wondered once again if he had ever realized how many times a day he could assume that position and how bewitching he could be when he looked at her in those moments.

He probably wasn't that oblivious, because he smiled when he saw her eyes dancing and scanning him from head to toe. Ten years had not scratched his well-formed body and he was still the handsome man she had fallen in love with many years ago. Actually, a lifetime ago.

"Stop grinning like an idiot, I can't focus when you look at me like that!"

He smiled again, then decided to get serious.

"What's bothering you?" he asked her.

"Don't you know?"

His arm left the support of the wall and he stood, coming closer. He sighed and put his hands on her face, caressing her cheeks and kissing her forehead.

"Of course I know. But I need you to tell me."

She looked at him, straight into his chocolate-brown-eyes, while his ones couldn't help but drowning inside hers.

"It's about today", she murmured, "It's about what happened ten years ago today."

He nodded in answer, never stopping to caress her cheeks.

"I know. And I knew you wouldn't sleep because of it. I tried so hard to got you enough exhausted so that you would fall asleep after our night of passion. We hadn't made love four times since…Wait a minute…We _never_ had sex four times in the same night!"

She burst out laughing and then she kissed him with gratitude. She loved when he made her laugh. And he'd always made her laugh in the last ten years. Everyday.

He responded and deepened the kiss until they both started to need for air. He solely released her as the softest smile spread over his face.

"I know it's hard to think about the lives we had ten years ago. Do you remember how we used to be against each other?"

"I remember you, running all over the damned States…"

"Mmm…" he moaned, kissing her cheek.

"And I also remember me, chasing you and never being able of taking your sorry ass back to where you belonged…"

"The Centre?"

Another kiss, this time _dangerously_ close to her earlobe. She stopped him and grabbed his hands in hers, then she put them on her chest, clearly over her heart.

He made that gorgeous and seductive grin of his.

"And what do _you_ remember?" she asked him.

"I remember your face blushing, claiming your almost kissing me on a _moment of weakness_..."

"I didn't blush!" she replied, but he ignored her.

"And I remember you saying that thing about turning points, what was that?" he asked her, pretending not to remember well.

"Oh yeah, that they only come…when you've got someone to turn to."

"All those pretending skills finally got to your head, Boy Wonder. I never said anything like that…"

"Oh, didn't you?" he smiled.

"Nope. I said _something_ to turn to."

"Oh, well…" he whispered, then kissed her again.

"You're getting older if your mind plays tricks on you."

"Did I mention that I hate you?!" he told her, releasing her immediately and gazing at her pretending to be offended by those words.

"Well, that was a long time ago", she answered, "There's a second time for everything."

He looked at her with uncertainty. What did she mean by that?

"I've never said something so terrible to you…"

"Didn't you?" she asked him, folding her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow.

"No, I didn't!" he replied, sure that he might as well be dead before saying that he hated her.

She sighed in exasperation, "You don't remember 'cause you were in a state of trance and later you took back the words, but you did. And before you say anything, yes, I forgave you because you were not your usual self at that moment."

He tried to focus on his memories, trying to remember what the hell she was talking about.

She made a sweet smile and moved her fingers, asking him to come closer. When he did so, she hugged him and kiss his cheek.

"I don't remember ever saying that –"

A look of recognition appeared on his face.

"You're still talking about that night…"

She nodded, a tear streaming down her face. He used his thumb to dry it away. After all those years, he couldn't stand watching her crying, yet.

"I told you it's about ten years ago…I can't help it…"

He wanted to kiss her sorrow away, and he did.

"I know it's hard. I've been thinking about it, too. I just have to be stronger than you, because I figured out you would need me to pretend to be _man of the house_ , just for one day…"

She laughed between tears, "The other man in this house is still a kid, you genius!"

"Actually I was talking about you."

He did it again, he made her laugh out loud. That was the sound he loved more in the whole world. Along with the voice of his children calling him 'daddy'.

"I'm the m _an of the hous_ e", she replied, satisfied by his choice of words.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're incredibly sexy for being a man?"

She smiled and kissed him back when he put his lips on hers.

"I love you…" she sighed against his chest.

Then he remembered another important thing.

"Hey…Am I right to assume that was the night I also told you that I loved you for the first time?"

She smiled, so glad that he still remembered.

"Yes, you did…"

She was going to hold him tighter, but he took her hands and looked at her, in silence.

"What?" she asked, long forgotten her _Ice Queen_ tone whenever she said that word years before.

" **You** told me first, Parker…"

Once again, she smiled, happiness enlightening her face.

"Yes, I did, Jarod."

He nodded, now he remembered everything very clearly.

"One night. But it changed everything…"

And while she held him again, they both started to live it again in their memories.

* * *

 _Please, feel free to review and rate, even if you think this is terrible! I love reading your reviews._


	2. Taking a Turning Point

**TEN YEARS AGO**

Three months have passed since their little adventure on Carthis.

Everything seemed 'back to normal', as Miss Parker has pointed out with Raines and Lyle as soon as she was back from the island.

Parker hadn't taken that turning point, yet. Apparently she was still trying to catch Jarod, at least as much stubbornly as her twin brother was. She used to reach Jarod's lairs always a step ahead of Lyle. Parker used her inner sense much more, now that she had started to understand her gift. It helped her to find all the lovely holes where the lab rat had spent some days, always before Lyle even finding out about their existence.

All her efforts, anyway, seemed to no avail. Jarod wasn't simply interested in playing their game of _cat-and-mouse_ anymore. He still ran, she still chased, as she had told him during their last phone conversation. But he didn't leave little presents behind anymore, and he hadn't contacted her or Sydney for three months. He just seemed to be vanished into thin hair.

Lyle was furious and so were Raines and the Triumvirate, that was still looking for Adama's murderer.

And yet, there were at least three people at the Centre who knew that this wasn't exactly the truth. Sydney, Broots, and Angelo were well conscious of what was happening between the fugitive and his huntress.

Miss Parker had decided she was simply too tired to deny the truth anymore.

She wasn't ready to admit her feelings yet, but after her trip to the island she couldn't lie to herself. She couldn't take Jarod back to Centre, she would never do it. She cared too much for him to condemn the pretender to a life of loneliness and exploitation. He wasn't their little experiment anymore, he'd never deserved to be.

A week after her return from Carthis, she had come back from the last place Jarod had been sighted in. She was so tired after the flight from Los Angeles that when she saw a very weary pretender waiting in her living room, she almost thought it was a dream. Or maybe that she was dead and gone to heaven.

Then she reminded herself that she would never go to heaven, so she realized she had to be very much alive.

"I hope for your sake that you are here to kill me or rob me, because I'm too tired for anything else."

Jarod saw her gun finishing inside her closet, then she placed the holster on a chair and went straight towards the cabinet where she kept her strong drinks bottles.

She opened it and grabbed one bottle of her favorite whiskey.

Jarod was still standing in the same spot she had first saw him while entering her house. He was quiet and didn't seem willing to talk not to spoil the moment.

Parker gave him a glimpse and saw tiredness on his face, the same he could see on hers. His eyes were full with blood, as if he hadn't slept for a while. For the first time, Parker saw pain and resignation on the pretender's face, and she thought she really missed the cute grins that used to appear on his face during the first months of the pursuit, when everything was different and they hadn't discovered so many lies, yet.

Of course, she hated those smirks, because she usually saw them when Jarod said goodbye, to point out that he had escaped once again. And they were usually accompanied by smiles coming from Sydney, who always enjoyed seeing his child prodigy slipping through their fingers.

All gone, now. The truth was, Jarod looked exhausted.

Parker took two glasses and poured some whisky inside both, then she approached Jarod and passed him one.

Jarod looked at her with disbelief, he didn't feel like drinking at all. Well, he had never drunk something so strong, probably. But when he saw Miss Parker nodding with encouragement, he changed his mind. He took the glass and started to drink, just like her.

"We came pretty close today, Jarod. You must keep your wits about you, or they are going to catch you, sooner or later."

Jarod didn't need to stress that she'd just said 'they', not 'we'. He nodded, instead.

"I was pretty sure, this time. I thought I'd found him…"

Parker knew who he was talking about. She'd been looking for her brother as much as Jarod, in the last week. And yet, Ethan had become the invisible man. He had disappeared. Or perhaps, he was in the hands of Raines. Or worst, of Lyle.

"Why are you here, Jarod?"

"I thought I knew where Ethan was. Then I followed your movements and realized you were tailing me. Which didn't upset me at all, 'cause I know how much you're trying to help me, these days."

Miss Parker didn't answer. She just sighed and looked inside her glass as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Jarod noticed her discomfort and secretly smiled to himself.

"I decided to wait, I needed to check on Ethan's last payments. He's using a credit card I've lent him, but it's difficult to track, even for me."

Parker chuckled, she couldn't believe the extremely-brilliant-pretender had problems in finding his little brother, who was using _his_ credit card.

"My program was almost over with the search, but I intercepted a conversation between Lyle and Raines, he'd just landed in L.A. and was coming to get me."

Parker nodded, "He arrived just ten minutes after we did. He's getting closer. I guess he's eventually starting to understand how you think."

"I had to run, Miss Parker. I could handle _you_ coming there, not Lyle and his sweepers. Let's just say he's not very accommodating when it comes to letting me go."

"He's not even interested in finding Ethan. Gee, he's his brother, too."

Jarod shrugged, "Lyle has never been interested in anyone but himself. He's getting more resolute, I need to keep an eye on him, I don't want to underestimate his skills."

"Funny, I thought that was what you needed _me_ for."

Jarod smiled for the first time, and so did Parker. A magic moment of trust between them.

' _I've been here for five minutes and I don't have cuffs on my wrists. Maybe the world_ _ **is**_ _changing, after all.'_

"So, Jarod. What do you want from me?"

She had asked him that question so many times in the last five years. And yet, this time felt completely different.

It felt of companionship, camaraderie, friendship. Maybe something more.

"Help me."

Parker never imagined a day would come with Jarod asking her for something, let alone for help. But she knew that things weren't what they used to be.

When Ethan had disappeared, everything had changed. Parker often pondered Jarod's words about their brother. She also had nightmares about the explosion on the train, but memories were still very clear. Memories of Jarod talking and trying to convince her that she had to help him save Ethan.

' _This is your brother Miss Parker, our brother. It could be a beginning, don't make it an end._ '

Jarod's voice usually sounded booming and far.

' _It's your mother's voice he can hear Miss Parker, maybe you can hear it too. Trust that voice._ '

Since Ethan's disappearance, Miss Parker had felt very guilty. She'd left him to go and save a man who wasn't even her father, and Ethan had been missing since then. She knew Jarod didn't blame her for that, but she couldn't help it.

Every now and then Jarod's words came to her mind and she really wanted to listen to them. She could hear her mother's voice trying to guide her, trying to make her understand that was the right way to go.

' _It could be a beginning, don't make it an end.'_

Between a drink and the other, Miss Parker had finally come to the conclusion that Ethan could _indeed_ be their new beginning. She'd known him for a very short time, but she felt like she'd known him a lifetime. Ethan was the real brother she'd always wanted, he was like her and also like Jarod. He had all the values she'd always admired in Jarod and the strenght of their mother, too. Parker loved him unconditionally, and she wanted him back.

So, since their return from that damned cursed island, Miss Parker had realized that she really wanted to find Ethan. Both she and Jarod needed their little brother back to their lives. Perhaps, after they'd find him, there would be a new beginning for the two of them, too. And this time without lies, pranks and games, just truth and trust. What Jarod had been asking her since his escape from the Centre.

"Help me find our brother. I need him. And I have a…gut feeling…that you need him even more than I do."

Parker didn't know what to reply. The fact she hadn't called a sweeper team was enough as an answer, for Jarod. She was willing to help him.

' _Help me save him. Help me save our family. It's your choice._ '

Once again, she remembered Jarod's words on the train. She nodded to herself, glad for the sudden realization that, eventually, it was her choice. It had always been.

So Miss Parker approached Jarod and looked into his eyes. He swallowed imperceptibly, his mouth all of a sudden became dry. Her closeness was disturbing, he felt like he couldn't control his arms and hands anymore, they were moving against his will. He put the glass on the near table, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I miss him", she said.

Jarod sighed, he didn't like seeing tears at the corner of her eyes. The pretender's right hand moved on its own accord and reached a strand of Parker's hair, putting it behind her ear.

To his – and her – surprise, she didn't protest. She didn't even flinch.

Jarod was incapable of moving his hand from her head, on the contrary his other hand reached the soft tenderness of her hair and started to stroke it, too.

"Don't…" she managed to say, between a caress and the other. She closed her eyes, but she didn't move from his hold.

"I know you miss Ethan, Miss Parker", he interrupted her, "We're going to find him. Trust me."

' _Trust. What an overrated word'_ , she thought.

"What kind of trust can you give, Jarod? The one that kills you or the one that sets you free?"

He was really surprised by her question.

"I knew you were listening…", he scoffed her.

He released her and lowered his arms, then he walked towards the door.

"I'll be in touch. I'll let you know as soon as I have news about Ethan's whereabouts, I promise."

"Will you call?" she asked him, reaching him again, searching for the warmth coming from his body.

"Phones are dangerous, these days. I believe all of you are controlled by Centre SIS. I'll stop by."

"Well, you _are_ the genius. I'm sure it's less dangerous to come here, at a stone's throw from the hell, than make a phone call from one of your safe rat holes!" she was almost shouting, but she didn't care. She was going to risk her neck to help him, she didn't want Jarod to make stupid things and being caught right outside her house.

He grinned in answer and opened the door, "As you know, I've gotten sort of used to taking care of myself, Miss Parker."

She came closer to him once again and put her hands on his chest, slightly but gently.

"I don't want anything to happen to you."

And then she saw that expression of pure love spreading over his face, the same one he'd had on that car in Glasgow when they had talked about turning points and she had rejected him…

She didn't want to appear too vulnerable, so she continued, "Not before you help me to find Ethan, at least."

"I'm not going anywhere", he said, grabbing her hands in his ones. She thought she had to extricate from his held, but she couldn't. Jarod's touch was soft and delicate, just as it had been back at Ocee's, in front of the fireplace. She felt safe, safe as she hadn't felt in a very long time.

"I know I probably shouldn't say this, but you know…the rules of our game seem to have changed a bit. Unless, I'd be watching the barrel of your 9mm right now…"

"Yeah, you probably would."

"Well, I guess you are starting to take that turning point, aren't you?"

She sighed, "It's complicated, Jarod. Don't rush it."

He shook his head, "It's almost thirty years, Miss Parker. I wouldn't call it _rush_."

He leaned in to her, his mouth right next to her ear, "I need you."

Even if she started to tremble, she didn't want to surrender. She wasn't ready.

She really wanted to feel his lips all over her skin, but she knew it wasn't right, not yet. So she used her hands to push him away, just a few more inches.

When she opened her eyes, Parker saw that Jarod's were now full of desire.

"I need you too." she admitted. Maybe more to herself than to him.

This time Jarod sighed in relief. He'd been waiting for these words to come from her mouth since he first escaped the Centre. It was like the end of a nightmare, she was finally admitting that she cared for him.

Parker looked intensely at him, then she said, "One step at a time."

He nodded in agreement, "One step at a time. Let's find Ethan, first."

Jarod turned around and exited, his feet already on the porch.

"Be careful!" the words slipped from her mouth before she could stop them.

Jarod couldn't stand it anymore. He closed the distance between them and pulled Parker to him in a strong and passionate hug, his hands on her head while Parker folded her arms behind his waist. She was trembling again, so he tried to calm her by telling soothing words.

"You trust me?" Jarod asked her, his lips brushing against her ear.

Parker nodded fast, she didn't need to answer out loud. And Jarod didn't need to hear her.

He released her again and gazed deeply into those beautiful eyes.

"I'm going to be okay."

Miss Parker nodded again and then she watched him disappearing in the middle of the night.

* * *

 _As usual, if you're enjoying this, please review :)_


	3. Psychological Counseling

I've always thought Sydney was more a father to Miss Parker than Mr. Parker ever was. What do you think?

* * *

 **TEN YEARS AGO**

The following weeks were spent with the main goal of finding Ethan.

Whenever Jarod discovered something about their brother, he showed up at Parker's house. She usually came home after work to find him eating in her kitchen, reading the newspapers, tapping on his laptop, calling a friend who might be helpful in the search of Ethan. One memorable time, she found Jarod asleep on her couch and she put a blanket over him, deciding at once that watching Jarod during his slumber made her feel peaceful and relaxed. When Jarod woke up, he had a delicious smile on his face, so childish that Parker almost lost it and bent to kiss it away. Hopefully, they were interrupted by Jarod's phone, but since then Parker had been wondering what would have happened if that kiss hadn't been interrupted – _again_! – and if she would resist his charm.

As he had promised, Jarod never called. Sydney was becoming impatient and more irritable than ever, since his former protégé wasn't looking for his advice anymore. Jarod didn't want Sydney and Broots to be in further danger than they already were, so he thought better than calling his mentor. And yet, he would really need to hear his voice, because his bond with Parker was getting stronger with every passing day and for the first time it felt like they were friends again. They had eventually realized how well they worked together, and they were both looking forward to find their brother.

Jarod didn't dare making the first step with Parker. Since that first night on her porch, contacts and touches had almost become a taboo. He didn't want to push her to do anything she wasn't ready for. And yet it was amazing to see how much her attitude around him was changing. He noticed she came back from work earlier, probably because she already knew when she would find him there, thanks to her inner sense. She smiled more often. And she got more and more confident when Jarod told her Ethan was probably heading back to Delaware.

* * *

When ten days passed without ever meeting Jarod, Parker started to get worried. Not more than four days had passed between their last encounters, and she had a bad feeling that Lyle had something to do with it. Her brother hardly ever spoke to her and he spent all the time in his office, without doubt he was conceiving a plan to catch Jarod, or Ethan, or maybe both.

Sydney entered Miss Parker's office and found her thoughtful and tired. She was staring at a picture, the old man was sure it was one of her mother, or maybe her father. She still didn't know if Mr. Parker was actually dead, they had never found his body. But Miss Parker couldn't simply accept the idea of Raines being her biological father.

Sydney coughed to claim her attention and Parker realized the psychiatrist was inside her office. She smiled with unhappiness and let out a sigh of resignation. Sydney walked and stopped behind her chair, just to see that she was holding a picture portraying to young kids walking across the corridors of the Centre. Sydney smiled and realized he'd had the chance to see those very kids wandering around the Centre a long time ago.

"He gave me this", Parker explained to her old friend, "He took it from a DSA."

Sydney watched carefully, "That might be around '71 or '72."

Parker nodded. She couldn't take her eyes off the picture.

"Does he know about your feelings?"

Parker looked at Sydney in astonishment.

"Broots, Lyle and Raines don't know the two of you as I do, Miss Parker. They can't see what I've always seen."

"And what exactly did you see, Sydney?" she asked, a bit irritated.

"I saw you growing together and separately. I saw you running from each other for years, trying to deny the truth."

Parker listened to him, a tear forming at the corner of her eye.

"I saw you fighting a battle with yourself because you always trusted Jarod against your father's will. I even saw you letting him escape, a couple of times…"

Parker grimaced, but Sydney knew she was actually hiding a smile.

"And I'm seeing you now, Parker. Don't let it go."

"It's never gonna happen, Sydney. Just…forget about it. Who finds his soul mate at ten years old?"

"You did."

Parker sighed, this time in exasperation. She stood up, while Sydney tried to convince her.

"You love him, don't you?"

Parker stopped at once, but didn't turn. She couldn't face Sydney in that moment. He knew her too damn well. He knew her so well that he made a few steps to reach her and showed her the picture again. Parker sighed.

"Give these kids the gift they never had, Miss Parker. Let them love and be loved!"

"Love was never the problem, Syd..." Parker admitted.

Sydney nodded in response, "Jarod deserves the truth, Parker. Let him know how you feel, before it's too late."

Parker did something she'd never done before. She leaned in to put a kiss on Sydney's cheek. Then she put her hand on his shoulder and moved away, letting the older man alone in her office.


	4. Sleep with the Fishes

**TEN YEARS AGO**

* * *

When she got home, she felt at once that he might be there. His presence was all around her, Parker could almost smell his cologne in the air. She loved that perfume, even if she'd never told him. It made her knees weak. And she didn't like feeling weak.

Parker closed the door behind her and whispered, looking around her living room, "Jarod?"

He didn't answer.

"Jarod?" she called him again.

She couldn't see him anywhere, so she looked in all the rooms. Jarod wasn't there.

Parker tried to catch any signs of the pretender, but there weren't. She was probably mistaken. But when she came back from her bedroom, she found a recorder over the kitchen counter. It still contained a tape. Parker took it and pressed play.

"Miss Parker, it's me. I'm sorry I'm not there in person, but I couldn't wait for you to come back from work. I've found Ethan!"

Parker gasped and went straight to the door, taking her keys and exiting again in the direction of her car.

"He's in a warehouse of a fish shop in Dover, it's close to the town bank where we met Fenigor. I guess he was trying to come back to Blue Cove. I'm on my way out!"

' _So am I_ ', she thought, her hands already on the steering wheel.

"I'm really sorry, I must get there before anyone else. If I found him, somebody else might be aware of his presence…"

Parker was horrified. Jarod was right, and she hoped at once that he would find their brother before the Centre.

"I'll let you know when I get there."

Parker thought his speech was over, but she was proven wrong when Jarod's voice continued to speak.

"I miss you. Please, follow me as soon as you listen to this message."

Parker smiled and stopped the tape, then she threw the recorder on the backseat. She would exceed speed limits, but she didn't care. Ethan needed her. And so did Jarod.

* * *

Parker took her gun from the holster and walked silently towards the back door. She'd found the place almost immediately, because she still remembered where the Dover Town Bank was located. Now, she was aiming her Smith & Wesson right in front of her, trying to avoid making any noise. Outside the warehouse she'd found Jarod's car, probably the one he'd rented lately.

The engine was still warm, which meant he hadn't been there for long. When she opened the door, it creaked loud, causing the sound to echo all over the damned place.

Parker swore to herself, then she continued her walk inside the building. It took her one minute to see some movements. As soon as her eyes got used to the darkness, she noticed someone kneeling on the floor.

"Jarod?" she whispered.

When Parker recognized the pretender, who was wearing his usual leather jacket, she ran towards him with a smile on her face.

But her happiness vanished in one second when she realized what was going on.

The voices inside her head exploded and she noticed that Jarod was rocking back and forth, moaning and muttering something she couldn't understand. He was crying desperately.

Ethan's lifeless body was lying in front of them. A hole through his forehead left no doubt about how their poor brother had been killed.

A perfect execution, with 'Compliments of the Centre' written all over it.

Parker fell on her knees next to Jarod and left out a breath she didn't know she'd been taking. She reached for her brother's body and found the courage to close his eyes, for his eyelids were still open.

"Ethan…" she murmured. She wanted the voices to disappear, the intensity of their screams was unbearable. Her mother's voice, more than others, seemed to be almost crying in pain.

Jarod was still crying in disbelief. His eyes were wide opened and so was his mouth. He simply couldn't believe the truth. Ethan was dead. Another brother taken away from him.

He tried to speak, but words seemed to fail him. He couldn't breathe, the shock starting to sink in.

Parker looked for his hand and took it in hers. She couldn't deal with this all on her own. She needed to rely on Jarod, he was the only one who could help her to get through this moment. Memories of another man in another time came to Parker's mind. She remembered the day she'd found Tommy lying on her front porch, blood coming from the hole Brigitte had shot in his forehead. Two men she'd loved so much, taken away from her in the very same way. She held Jarod's hand stronger, but he didn't react. He was lost in a different world.

Parker sighed and looked at him. He was trembling and Parker started to worry.

"Jarod, you need to calm down, now…"

"They killed him."

"I know. Jarod, this is a setup, they're certainly coming at any time…we need to go."

"He's dead. They killed him.", he repeated.

Parker understood that Jarod was in a trance. She didn't have time to take care of him, they had to leave at once. If she was right, this was a trap and sweepers would come inside the building.

"Jarod. We can't do anything for him, now…we must go."

"I won't leave him. I'm not going anywhere. He needs me. I've found him, we have to stay with him."

Parker started to hear signs of insanity in Jarod's voice. She had never seen him like that before, not even when Kyle had died in his arms.

"I had to find him before. I left him alone. I killed him."

"Jarod, don't do this to yourself. It's not your fault. It's nobody's fault."

"It's all my fault!", he shouted, "I killed him! He was all alone, we had to protect him!"

Parker heard noises coming from the outside. There was no more time. They had to go.

"Jarod, I know how you feel. I know. But we have to go, now. They're coming. Sweepers will be all around this place in a couple of minutes, we must run!"

Jarod bent to take Ethan's hand in his one. It felt so cold and lifeless. Just like Kyle's when he'd died in Dry River.

"Ethan…I'm so sorry, little brother…I'm so sorry…"

Parker's heart broke into a thousand pieces, but she didn't have time to be sad. She had to take Jarod out of that place.

She stood up and pulled him closer, trying to convince him to stand. She dragged him, but he wasn't cooperating.

"Jarod. I'm gonna tell you once. We get out of here. Now!" she said through clenched teeth. Jarod saw her resolution, but he knew she was feeling as bad as he felt, maybe even more.

He got a move on and stood up behind Parker, while noises were getting closer to their actual location. They both looked at Ethan once more. Jarod made up his mind: he couldn't let his brother behind.

"I'm gonna take him out of here."

Parker stopped him before he could bend once again.

"We can't carry him, Jarod. You know that. They're already here."

"I – won't – leave him!" he replied. Parker realized that was the first time she saw a very furious pretender. She was scared.

"He's dead, Jarod."

"I can't let Lyle have him…"

"It's necessary, Jarod."

Parker grabbed his arm with her free hand, trying to pull him away from the corpse, but Jarod didn't want to. She heard a voice coming from the alley and she realized that was Lyle's.

"Jarod, I don't want to leave him either, but we must go. Lyle's here and he's not alone...you asked me if I trusted you, now I'm asking you to trust me. We can't do anything for Ethan..."

Jarod's tears streamed down his face. Parker dragged him away from Ethan just as sweepers arrived inside the huge room with guns in their hands.

"Find them!", Lyle was screaming.

Parker and Jarod hid behind a tank full of fish. She was still holding her gun, her hands were sweating. She could hear her companion crying silently next to her, his breath was getting deeper. Parker knew they would never make it out of there if Jarod didn't recover from the shock of Ethan's death.

Parker waved her hand towards a door that would lead them to the exit of that damned place, then she hushed him. She didn't know if Jarod would follow her lead, but they had to get out of there. She waited for Willie to move past them, then she started to crawl silently. To her surprise, Jarod followed her. They'd almost reached the door, when she bumped against a big tank that fell loudly to the floor.

"Shit", she screamed.

Miss Parker stood up at once and dragged Jarod with her, while at least five men ran in their direction.

"Right there! Find them!"

Lyle's voice roused something inside Jarod's mind. He turned around, ready to get back and fight against him. He was sure he'd been Ethan's killer. Just as he had already killed his other brother.

Parker noticed in a glimpse that Jarod was going back, but she stopped him. She grabbed his shirt and she pulled him to her, causing the pretender to lose his balance.

"This is NOT the time for revenge, Jarod!"

"Let go of me!" he shouted. Then he did something he'd never done before. He took the weapon from her hands and started to fire blindly. He didn't care about killing other people, he just wanted to put a bullet inside Lyle's head and scatter his brains all over the place. He shouted out loud while Parker couldn't do anything but stare at him in disbelief.

The sweepers seek for repair and so did Lyle, who bent just in time to see a bullet missing his head but hitting his left shoulder instead. Two sweepers fell down, probably dead.

When Parker's cartridge was over, Jarod was still pulling the trigger. Parker took advantage of that moment to take Jarod outiside. They ran as they've never done before, pushed by their instinct and will of survive and with bullets whistling all around them.

Jarod had escaped many times before, but that night he couldn't even feel his legs. His limbs were acting by themselves.

"My car, there!" she screamed, using her hand to show him the place where she'd left her black sedan.

Jarod reached the passenger side and opened the car door, waiting for Parker to sit and finally start the engine to get away as fast as they can.

He was out of breath just as much as Parker, who stepped on the gas stronger than she thought she ever could.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, afraid that some bullet might have hit him.

He didn't answer, he was looking at his hands, still holding Parker's gun. Worried, Miss Parker moved her right hand and started to inspect his chest and arms to find out if he'd been hurt.

When she noticed blood on her hand, she looked at him, trying to keep en eye on the street.

"They hit you!"

Jarod stiffened at once, he used his own hand to touch the wound on his left arm. It didn't hurt at all, the bullet had probably entered and exited.

Parker was frightened by his silence, she didn't know what to do and she needed Jarod to help her. She'd never felt so powerless and vulnerable before. Every time she felt lost, she had Jarod to try and comfort her. This time he was the one in need of attention, he really seemed to have lost it. Ethan's death had been the last straw.

"Jarod, I can't go back. They saw me, they know I helped you."

He looked at her for the first time in that terrible night.

"We left him. We abandon him with that crazy brother of yours..."

"Don't call him that. We came out of the same uterus, but that doesn't change the fact we don't have anything in common. I'm nothing like him."

Miss Parker watched carefully at the rearview mirror, nobody was following them. She increased the speed, annoyed and disappointed by Jarod's words.

"He killed Ethan. He killed my brother."

" _Our_ , brother", she reminded him "We need to get somewhere safe, Jarod. One of your typical lousy motels will be fine. We need to calm down and sort things out."  
"There's nothing to sort out. Ethan's dead."

Parker sighed and shrugged. She couldn't deal with him, not now. She saw her weapon in his hands and took it. It was still warm. She threw it on the backseat and it landed just next to the recorder. Then she used her free hand to grab Jarod's one.

She wasn't surprise to feel it slip between her fingers and to see a very shattered pretender leaning his head against the window and beginning to cry again.

* * *

Reviews please ;)


	5. First times

**TEN YEARS AGO**

* * *

Miss Parker drove for hours to be sure they hadn't been followed. When she felt too tired to go on, she chose a motel located a few miles outside of Baltimore. She didn't even remember when they've crossed the state line between Delaware and Maryland.

The clerk was a young guy used to meet foreign visitors. He'd seen the weirdest people coming in and out of that motel, but those two looked different. The woman was stunning and the man seemed the kind of guy everyone would like to be like. Tall, handsome, muscled and in great trim. And yet, they looked tired and the clerk was sure there was sadness in their eyes.

When the woman handed some extra money over him, he took the $ 50 bill and asked her, "What is this for?"

In the meantime, Jarod took the key to their room and move past Parker, the only thing he wanted was to touch a bed.

"Nobody has to disturb us. For no reason."

"Yes Ma'am", he answered.

"Should anyone come here and ask, you've never seen us. Are we clear?"

He nodded in agreement. Parker smiled and handed another bill to the young man.

"Indeed…"

* * *

The room was small but clean. When Miss Parker entered, Jarod was sitting on the bed. he was staring sightlessly at the floor in front of him, his hands resting on the bed blanket, an unfathomable expression. Parker sighed with her eyes roaming over his face.

"Jarod, I need to call Sydney. He must be freaking out."

He moved his hand just to take a mobile from his jacket inside pocket, then he gave it to her.

Miss Parker smiled guiltily when she noticed that Jarod's phone had only three numbers stored in memory. The third one was Broots', the second Sydney's. And the first was hers.

When the old psychiatrist answered the phone, Miss Parker put him on speakerphone, so that Jarod could hear him too.

"Parker! I was so worried for you! Where are you? Where is Jarod?"

Parker looked at the groggy pretender sitting next to her, then she answered, "He's here with me, Syd."

The old man didn't ponder the possible implications of her words. He was glad to know they were together, though.

"Ethan is dead, Sydney."

"I know, Parker. I'm really sorry."

Jarod gasped once again and Parker put a hand on his shoulder, trying to soothe him gently.

"Lyle came back a couple of hours ago. He was furious. He's wounded, but his shoulder's not the first thing you should be worried about. He saw you, he knows you were there to help Jarod. Raines has already informed the Triumvirate. They issued a _Schedule K_ against you, Miss Parker."

She closed her eyes and smiled nervously, she had been expecting this. Jarod, instead, raised his head and gave her a frightened gaze, then he glared at the wall, "They gave order to kill her?"

Sydney was so happy to hear his _protégé_ 's voice that he exhaled in relief.

"I'm afraid so."

Miss Parker didn't speak, she was as much preoccupied as Jarod. And yet, she felt excited when she realized that Jarod still cared about her, if he was worried for her safety.

"You must stay hidden, Parker."

"We will. We can't contact you anymore, we would put you in danger. But you can't stay there either, Sydney. As soon as they find out of this phone call, they will throw you and Broots in front of another T-board. You must take him, Angelo and Debbie and run away, now!"

Sydney shook his head, "And where could we go? I can't leave, there are still people whose safety is more important than mine…"

"Michelle…Nicholas…" Jarod whispered.

Parker huffed in exasperation, "Then take them with you, too. I want you to go somewhere safe, where they won't find you…"

"Where?" Sydney asked. The Centre already knew about all the places he would be headed to.

"Write this down, Sydney", Jarod urged him, "It's a house I've bought last year, the Centre doesn't know anything about it. It's in the Keys."

Sydney wrote down the adress Jarod was telling him.

"Don't use traceable flights, or the Centre will find out. Call Angela Wiley, she's an old friend of mine, and a pilot. She will escort you there."

"This is the pilot of the plane that crashed?", Parker asked him.

Jarod ignored her question and replied, "They can't use their true IDs, they need new fake ones."

Parker nodded in agreement, "Syd, there's a metal case inside a safe deposit box located at Sussex County Airport. The key is hidden inside the rabbit cage in Debbie's room."

Jarod wondered if the rabbit she was talking about was still the one he'd given her that Christmas some years before. He thought he would ask her later. And he wondered why she had fake IDs ready for all of them. Had she been planning to leave the whole time?

"Sydney don't go there, there will be cameras all around the place. Look for my old friend Argyle, he's currently leading a Casino in Atlantic City, it's called the _Vatican_. Tell him that I sent you to make him retrieve the case for me. He's going to do anything you ask him to."

Sydney was still writing down all the information the couple was sharing with him. He was so proud of how well and fast they could think.

"Sydney, don't trust anybody!" Parker reminded him.

"This is the Centre, Miss Parker. When did we?"

Sydney hung up and left them dazed.

* * *

Jarod stood up and stepped away from her. He didn't like her closeness, in that moment. He was still mad at her, at Lyle, at the Centre, at the whole damn world.

He was trying to accept the fact he had lost another brother, but he couldn't let go.

"I'm glad you're speaking again", she stated gently. She didn't want to argue with him, she just wanted to know he was okay. Jarod turned around and glared at her. Parker had never seen that look on Jarod's face, not addressed to her. She'd seen him angry, disappointed, irritate, but never furious. He was pacing the space between the wall and the bed, trying to find a reason to explain what had happened.

"Jarod", she stood up in the middle of his pacing, blocking his way and placing her hands on his chest tenderly, "You can't do this to yourself. You and I have to deal with death every single day, since the Centre is our own little hell. People die because of us, and there's nothing we can do about it. That's what we've been taught."

"And what will I tell my family? That Ethan died because I wasn't able to save him and we must accept it because that's what I've been taught?!" he snapped back at her. He was screaming, but Miss Parker didn't react badly. She wanted to calm him down, but she knew that before he had to explode and let everything come to the surface.

"You know there's nothing we could do about it, Jarod. You know", she repeated, trying to soothe him but to no avail.

"We've abandoned our little brother in the hands of his killer. He won't even have a burial, Miss Parker! I can only imagine what Raines and that twisted brother of yours will do to his corpse!" he snarled.

Rationally, he knew he was picking a fight just to unload his sorrow on her, but unconsciously he didn't care. He felt bereft and empty.

Parker was feeling the same, but Jarod was the one in trouble, the one who needed to grieve. And he had to do it soon, because their lives depended on it. Parker had to help him, in the hope he would not hate her later.

"Well, we were late, _Boy Genius_. Your _alleged_ -pretending-skills didn't help us saving Ethan."

"Shut up…"

Parker ignored Jarod and scolded him, "Well, it's all your fault, Jarod. You blew it and Ethan was the sacrificial lamb on Raines' altar."

"I told you to shut up…"

Jarod was trembling, his wrath growing and ready to burst out. His pacing became even more evident and heavy on the floor.

"The truth is you're feeling guilty because you could have saved him and you didn't!" Parker shouted and Jarod stopped at once, looking back at her in total commiseration over himself.

"I hate you!" he yelled at her.

Miss Parker felt as though he was twisting a knife in her back. She gazed back at him in astonishment and swallowed, trying to accept what Jarod had just told her. It took her at least ten seconds, then she responded.

"No, you don't", she hissed back, "You simply can't accept the thought of losing another person you loved."

Jarod had heard enough. He took the gun from the bedside table and aimed it against her, his hand trembling with rage.

Parker wiggled her eyebrows at him, while Jarod blinked hardly to keep focus. She remembered the last time she'd had the same reaction. They were on Tommy's grave, and she got mad at him for showing up on the anniversary of his death.

"What are you going to do, shoot me?", she taunted him, "There are no more bullets, remember? A genius thought better of using them to slaughter a bunch of sweepers and hurt that twisted twin brother of mine!"

Jarod sighed, the fatigue of his wrath overpowering him. He let his arm rest on his side and then the gun fell on the floor. He wailed and crumbled into tears, leaning his back against the wall and slipping to the floor. He hid his head between his arms, which held his knees in what looked almost a fetal position.

Parker knew Jarod had reached the highest pick of his rage, now he was falling down again. She sighed in relief and sat down next to him, trying to avoid looking at the shattered pretender while she still needed to confess her feelings. All she could think about were Sydney's words:

' _Give these kids the gift they never had, Miss Parker. Let them love and be loved!'_

"Jarod, I'm sorry for what I said before. It wasn't your fault. Ethan's killing was just a bait, a means to draw you into a trap. God, maybe me, too. Now I realize Lyle must have known about our cooperation for a while…"

Jarod didn't answer but didn't even ignore her. He raised his head and glanced at Parker, with eyes red for the countless tears he'd cried that night. Parker looked at him, trying to pass on to him all her sympathy.

"I know how you feel, Jarod. I've been through the same despair when Thomas died. Remember what a wreck I was?" she commented. Jarod's eyes were looking sightlessly in front of himself, but he nodded imperceptibly.

"Remember how I overcame Tommy's death?"

"Alcool, cigarettes, and a Russian roulette every night?" he quipped.

She rolled her eyes, but she was glad to notice his sarcastic sense of humour hadn't vanished.

"I managed to live through it just because of you."

Jarod blinked at her in disbelief, the reality of this confession sinking down inside his heart.

Parker gasped and found the strenght to continue, "You've been the only one who helped me, without you I would have never made it. You challenged me to find the truth, you put me on the right trail. You followed me in that bar, you helped me with Dawson's autopsy, you came to tell me the truth about Miller's death at that police impounding depository. You know, that day I really understood what you'd been trying to tell me for years. That we're all pawns in the sick game of the Centre. That they control us, use us…All the lies I'd been told, my father's sick way of administrating that hell…"

"I'd been trying to tell you the same damned things for years, Miss Parker…", he replied sharply.

"I know. But I had to face the death before finally starting to believe you. I've doubted my father since then, I've never trusted him again, not truly. I've always followed your advice instead of my father's."

His head leaned against the cold wall behind them, his eyes closed.

"One year later, the day of the anniversary of Thomas' death…I was overwhelmed, I thought I couldn't deal with it on my own. But I wasn't alone, was I?"

Jarod squized his eyes more.

"I'm so sorry for the things I told you that day at the cemetery. But you caught me out of guard and I didn't know how to be around you…"

Jarod's lips quivered, Parker feared that he would cry again. But she didn't care, he needed to know _all_ the truth.

"Finding the truth about you and Tommy was…" she sighed in frustration, "Excruciating."

"Why?" he asked her, his voice taking a low discomforting tone.

"I thought you were trying to manipulate me, just like my father. Tommy wanted me to go with him, and for a second I thought you might have pushed him to ask me to leave the Centre."

Jarod's lips turned into a faint smile, with the result that Parker looked at him with the most delicious expression on her face.

"Actually I _did_ told him to ask you. I wanted you to leave, I thought Tommy would have been the best for you. And he was, you know?"

"I know, Jarod", she nodded in agreement, "And later I had time to ponder and I realized you'd lit the torch between us just because you cared for me very deeply."

"I wanted to see you happy, Miss Parker."

"Yes."

She noticed with pleasure that he'd calmed down and for the first time in many minutes he turned his head and started to look intently at her. He was quiet but still panting.

Parker took his hands in hers and looked at him in return, trying to keep her bravery.

"The first time you pleaded me to take a turning point, I wasn't ready. I ignored you and voluntarly scolded you, I was sure that things would never change. The second time you asked, when you came to visit me, I knew I would try to change my life and turn to something different, but yet, I wasn't ready. I couldn't leave everything behind."

Jarod nodded slowly, he understood what she was trying to tell him. Too many times she'd been over the edge, praying for something – or someone – to help her make a decision.

"Now I've been forced to stare that turning point right in my face. Ethan's death changed everything. Now I really am an outcast, just like you."

"You've always been, Miss Parker."

Jarod blinked a few times, then directed a gaze reflecting his deepest emotions at her. He moved his hand to touch Parker's face and he caressed the sweet line that went from her cheekbone to her jaw. She let out a deep sigh and let his words sink deep into her soul.

A comfortable silence fell between them as they just stared in each other's eyes. Parker's feelings were so overwhelming that she looked away to release a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Where do we go from here? I don't know what's going to happen, all I know is that we must stay together, Jarod."

The pretender suddenly realized how much he'd been needing to hear those words.

"If that offer is still valid…If all the things you confessed to me in Glasgow are true…Then all I want is to be with you."

Jarod blinked a couple of times and rolled his eyes, trying to grasp the irony of the situation.

"You know, it's ridiculous that you're taking that turning point just now that our brother's dead. We've always needed someone we both love to die to get closer to one another. Your mother, Faith, Thomas…and now Ethan."

"I told you, Jarod. This is the Centre. Death is always on our daily agenda."

"It's just…"

He sighed again and squeezed his eyes, then he got rid of Parker's hands to rub his face. She noticed that he had an intense five-o'clock shadow. Parker always thought that Jarod looked much intriguing with a beard. Not a very long one, just the short fascinating regrowth.

"I don't know. I'm just so tired of fighting. I can't do it alone..."

It was Parker's turn to smile. She grabbed his hands again and stared right into his eyes.

"You're not alone. Not anymore."

Jarod smiled back and caressed her cheek with his fingertips once more. Her skin was the softest thing he'd ever touched in his life. He felt so sorry for all the things he'd said before. He needed to apologize to this incredibly strong woman.

"You know that I don't hate you, don't you?"

Parker nodded solemnly, "I do."

"I need to find something still worth fighting for, Miss Parker."

"Your mother's still out there, Jarod. And so is the rest of your family. They're still alive, Jarod, they need you to focus. There are so many people that the Centre took away from us. My mother, Tommy, Kyle…We must end this thing, once and for all."

Jarod closed his eyes and saw the faces of those incredible people, who had been unlucky enough to find their ends because of the Centre. He was so intent on remembering his friends and relatives, that he lost some of Parker's last words.

"…And I'm going to help you. I won't hide my head in the sand anymore, I won't deny the truth I've always known deep inside. I'm not one of them."

"You've never been. You were pretending. Just like me", he stated spontaneously. Parker waited for him to tell something, but he was more interested in caressing her cheeks. Jarod realized he wasn't able not to touch her, his hands needed to feel the touch of her soft skin.

"I need you", he whispered, his voice trembling with emotion and desire, "I need to feel alive. I need to forget about everything, just for one night."

Parker ran a hand through Jarod's hair, by now shorter than it had been on the island, massaging little circles on the back of his head.

"And I want to be needed", she purred back, her voice now reduced to a trembling murmur.

Jarod let out a lovely sigh of contentment that made her smile wider.

"We're going to deal with it together. One step at a time, remember?"

Parker folded her hands around his neck, pulling him closer to her, feeling the need of tasting his lips becoming almost compelling. But Jarod fliched once more to stare at her intensely.

"There's still something I have to say, Miss Parker. I should have told you that day in Glasgow. Well, actually I should have told you years ago."

Parker knew what he was going to say. But she didn't need to hear the words. Their actions were talking enough for them both.

"I already know, Jarod. It doesn't matter how much our lives made us apart. We always find each other, in the end. Maybe it's _really_ supposed to be that way…"

As soon as Jarod heard those words, he found himself back on the island. They weren't in a low class motel room anymore, they were on Carthis again. They were in front of Ocee's fireplace, where everything had started but not finished.

He closed the distance between them and finally brushed her lips with his.

It wasn't how Jarod would have imagined an adult kiss with Miss Parker would be. It was better. He felt her responding and deepening the kiss, slowly opening her mouth to give his tongue access. He could almost hear Parker's heart racing as much as his. Parker's hands reached his shoulders to remove his leather jacket, and Jarod helped her, moving his chest to allow her to get rid of the garment. But their lips never parted and Jarod's hands continued to stroke her hair and cheeks.

Parker ran her hand over Jarod's left arm and find it again covered with blood. She'd completely forgotten about his wound. Worried, she slowly released him and they both catch their breaths. Noticing her hesitation, he explained, "Just a scratch. We'll take care of it later."

Parker felt more aroused by that simple _later_ than she'd ever felt in her life with any other man. When Jarod kissed her again, she took advantage of the moment to take off his black shirt, careful not to hurt his arm. She ran her hands all over his chest, finally able to touch the wonderful torso she'd always secretly dreamed of. When they both stood on their knees, heading for the bed, Jarod returned the favor and undressed her, starting from her red silk shirt. When he touched the bare skin of her shoulders, he felt that ripple of electricity that had flowed also when their hands had touched by chance in Carthis.

Jarod guided her to the bed where Parker lay down under him. Her hands were still folded behind his neck and Jarod's were caressing her shoulders, with the aim to lower the bra straps. Parker moved her hand over his mouth and her thumb gently touched his lips.

Jarod kissed it and whispered, "Are you sure?"

She nodded, feeling the heat generating from his body and willing to feel him inside her.

No more words were said.

While they slowly and patiently divested each other of the clothes they'd been wearing that night, they continued the exploration of their bodies. They felt the urgent need to touch, caress and kiss each other. This wasn't something unexpected, there were 30 years of history between them. As if every single event in their lives had leaded to this very moment.

They needed to be close to each other, they were spiritually joined, not just physically. This went beyond the simple sexual act, this was a union of souls. And with every kiss Jarod was placing on her belly, legs, thighs, shoulders and breast, she felt more and more adored and needed. Just the way she wanted to feel at that moment.

And when he slowly thrust inside her and they were joined in the most literal meaning, they both realized they'd reached the highest level of bliss ever.

When Jarod felt Parker stiffen, inhaling deeply and increasing her hands pressure on his shoulders, he gazed at her with concern, afraid he might hurt her. But Parker smiled tightly, trying to reassure him about her condition. Jarod realized at once that she hadn't been with any other man after Thomas. He could read it in her eyes. Parker caressed his cheek, inviting him to go ahead, while a huge grin appeared on Jarod's face at the acknowledgement that she trusted him enough to let him lead during this sensual dance. So he began to rock, driving him deeper inside her.

They were face to face, connected in the most natural of ways, wrapped in intimate and deep movements that were leading them to a fast but incredible release. This couldn't be slow, they wanted each other too much to make it slow.

Her release was nothing she'd ever experienced before, maybe because she'd never been with someone who knew her so well, so deeply. Their bodies were really fitting like two pieces of the same puzzle. When she came back to herself, Parker intentionally captured with her lips the lovely sound of Jarod's moans during his release, trying to catch his own breath with hers.

They rested on the bed in the aftermath, sweaty and tangled to each other, their respiration slowly coming back to normal after long minutes of gasps and swallows.

Jarod bent to kiss her belly lovingly, then Parker touched his head to claim his attention. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, while she pressed her lips over his once more, this time tenderly.

"I love you", she whispered to him, feeling that it was the right time.

Jarod smiled and deepened the kiss again firmly, trying to breath through it.

"I love you", he responded with a moan.

Parker nodded and suddenly started to cry. All the emotions of that terrible night were finally sinking in. It didn't take Jarod much time to realize that she'd tried to be strong just to push him to overcome Ethan's death.

She was shattered too, but this time she hadn't had a _heroic_ pretender to help her. As Parker's tears streamed down her face, he held her from behind and started to place soft kisses on her hair and cheeks. Jarod came to the conclusion that he loved that woman more than he could have ever thought possible. She'd set aside her pain, she'd put on her _Ice Queen_ mask once more just to drag him out of his sorrow, of his numbness.

Jarod leaned in to her, his lips brushing against her ear, "I'm so sorry, Miss Parker. I'm sorry I left you alone. You didn't have to see me like that, it was unfair. You had to keep your strenght for both of us…"

Parker sobbed heavily, she couldn't help but crying.

"It won't happen anymore, I promise. I'll be back from tomorrow, I swear. The same annoying pretender you've always secretly loathed."

Parker chuckled between the tears, "You'd better…"

"Thank you, Miss Parker…Thanks for everything you've done tonight, I'll never forget."

Jarod used his thumbs to dry her tears away.

"Well, I've always thought you were quite the stud in bed, Boy Wonder."

Jarod grinned from ear to ear, "That's not what I meant. Even if I must admit I'd really like a second round with you."

"Anytime, genius…"

Jarod pressed his lips on hers, tasting the salty savor of her tears.

"Thanks for helping me through it. This is why I love you so much. Because you're the strongest person I've ever met. You understand the real me, like nobody else ever could."

He kissed her forehead and caressed her cheeks again.

"You knew that if I had ever reached the breaking point, I would have needed you to survive."

Parker smiled at his words. He'd finally understood all the things she'd been saying that night, "You've always been there when I needed you. Time had come to pay you back."

"This is who I am, Parker. I am simply incapable of being far from you whenever you need me. Now I know this feeling is mutual, isn't it?"

"Totally, Pez Head", she answered gently. "And I love the sound of that."

"Of what?"

"As far as I can remember, it's the first time you call me _Parker_."

Jarod looked around and realized that she was right. He never forgot the title when he called directly. She'd always been _Miss_ Parker to him.

"It's ridiculous if you think that you're probably the only person alive who knows my real name."

"Sydney knows."

Parker nodded in acceptance. After all, Sydney had seen her growing.

"Well, there's a first time for everything." Jarod stated, smiling.

"And also a second time, I hope." Parker purred in his ear.

* * *

 _Ok, this was my very first attempt on writing some 'smut', but I'm afraid it wasn't really nice. That's not my kind of stuff. But I hope you're still enjoying this._


	6. Confessions

I hope you enjoy this chapter, because I loved writing it.

* * *

 **TEN YEARS AGO**

When Miss Parker woke up a couple of hours later, she felt Jarod's fingertips caressing the bare skin of her arm. While a huge smile appeared on her face, Jarod kissed her cheek and inhaled the scent of her skin. She turned around to face him and waited for a deeper kiss, just to make sure that she wasn't dreaming.

"Mmm. You are definitely real", she purred against his mouth.

"Afraid you'd been dreaming all time long?" he teased her.

Parker chuckled, "Ok, when did you learn to read my mind?"

"Probably the day you told me that _you were a girl_ ", he quipped.

"Jarod, that was the day we first met!" she taunted him.

He leaned in to her, "Exactly."

The pretender kissed her again with passion. But before feeling the urge of making love to her again, he stopped.

"Parker."

"Mmm", she murmured, stealing another kiss from his lips and starting to worship her last name said by Jarod's sensual voice.

"If we want this to last…if we want…" he pointed out to both of them using his finger, " **Us** …to work, really…it's time to be honest with each other. I don't want any other secrets between us."

"What do you mean?" she asked him, urging him to answer clearly.

"We still have some time before our lives change completely. I want to tell you all the secrets I still keep. All the truth."

Parker nodded in agreement, even if she couldn't imagine what other secrets the pretender might have hidden from her.

Jarod sighed bitterly. He didn't know where to start.

"I have to give you something. It's not here with me, it's in a safe place. We're going to fetch it as soon as possible."

"What?" she inquired.

"Your mother's diary."

Parker felt her heartbeat increasing rapidly. Jarod watched her expression changing from delighted to frustrated.

"How long have you kept it from me?"

"Four years."

Parker raised up on her elbows to look better at him. She was furious.

"You gotta be kidding me!"

Jarod shook his head, "I'm so sorry, Parker. I read it years ago, but I never delivered it to you."

"Why?" she yelled. She didn't know if she was mad at him for the fact he hadn't given her such a precious memento of her mother or because he had read it.

"I thought I could find information about my parents, about my family. I really hoped Catherine had written something about her old friend Margaret, I needed to understand how she had tried to save me."

Parker shook her head in dismay. She tried to stand up from the bed, but Jarod stopped her, grabbing her arm gently.

"That diary contains your mother's inner secrets and memories. The information I've passed on to you all these years came from Catherine's diary. That's how I found out about Timmy becoming Angelo, or about Edna Raines being her friend…"

"I don't care, Jarod. What the hell were you thinking not to let me read my mother's diary? And what else does it say?"

Jarod sighed deeply, afraid of losing Parker for his stupidity.

"She talks a lot about Faith. She really wanted you to meet her, but your father didn't allow that to ever happen. She talked about the watch she gave you and that later helped you to survive. I found that watch with the diary, by the way."

Parker stared at him in disbelief. Another secret finally revealed.

"She also talks about her son. She really thought he died at birth, she never knew Lyle was still alive. She wrote that she never found the nerve to tell you the truth because she knew this would have caused you pain."

"So you knew about my brother even before finding the red files?" she scolded him.

Jarod nodded, "I knew about the twin, not that he was alive. When I found out that your brother wasn't dead, I realized at once you had to know the truth. But believe me, I've never known it was Lyle. And surely I never rooted for him."

"All these years, Jarod", she shook her head again, "You used my mother to lead me towards the truth. You took advantage of her memory to manipulate me to do whatever you want me to. Why didn't you give it to me, Jarod?"

The pretender noticed she felt disappointed and _betrayed_. He felt terrible and guilty.

"I've found another letter from your mother attached to this diary. It was a message written the day of her presumed death. She asked one thing very clearly: she didn't want you to read her diary if anything happened to her. She didn't want you to know the truth behind the Centre, particularly about your father and what kind of man he really was. She didn't want her little daughter to know how sad her mother's life had been."

Parker was crying. Whenever she thought about Catherine and how much she'd suffered, she couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"Well, _Boy Genius_ , you didn't take her words literally, because you've been telling me all the things she said in her diary even if I never read it. You didn't respect her will anyway."

"I couldn't do otherwise, Parker. We wouldn't be here now, if I hadn't. And if there's one thing I've learned at the Centre is that everyone deserves the truth. I believe that now you are ready to read it, you have enough awareness. Not only of Catherine, but of yourself, too."

Parker chuckeld ironically, she was still pissed off by Jarod's behavior.

"Please, forgive me Parker. I thought I was doing the right thing. Now I know I was totally wrong. If I had given the diary to you sooner, maybe you would have learned to trust me before."

Jarod's last words soothed Miss Parker. She was glad he hadn't said something stupid like ' _I did it for your own good_ '.

"Did my mother talk about Ethan?"

Parker's question reminded Jarod about their little brother. He swallowed hard to hold back the tears, then he shook his head, "No, the last note in the diary goes back to the day of her presumed death, she doesn't talk about _Mirage_. Maybe she thought it would be too dangerous."

Jarod waited for her to ask something else, but she didn't. Maybe she was thinking about Ethan, too.

"But she wrote a lot about you. She also liked talking about Angelo and…me."

"Did she?" Parker smiled, her heart filled with joy.

Jarod traced his fingers down her face, pushing her hair behind her ear. He nodded slowly and then he kissed her, relieved when Parker didn't resist.

"I'm still disappointed, Jarod. I'm sorry that you thought i wasn't enough mature to have it." She sighed deeply. "But I trust you completely and I know you gave me pieces of truth one step at a time. And then you gave me my mother's ring and her letters…"

Jarod nodded in agreement. He was glad that Parker understood his point of view.

"Jarod…I want you to promise me that from now on you won't hide ANYTHING from me. No more secrets, no more pranks, no more clues, no more twisted little games, no more dead ends…I mean it, Jarod!"

Jarod grinned again, satisfied and full of himself, "Miss Parker, you amaze me. I won't need to do that anymore. Don't you realize that you're in big trouble?" he threatened laughingly.

"Why?"

"Because from now on I'm never letting you go. Ever. I'm never gonna lose sight of you, not even for a second. You're stuck with me, Parker."

"Mmm…A girl could get used to it."

Parker gently stroked his cheek with her fingers, wondering why she had denied her feelings for so long. They kissed again.

"Your turn, now." Jarod inquired politely.

Miss Parker laughed and thought about her secrets. She told Jarod about the first memory that came to her mind.

"When Sydney and I found out about Gemini, we felt disgusted. When I saw the boy, I noticed he was scared, I really wanted to help him."

"Meaning?" Jarod asked her, inquiring.

"I would have saved him. I wanted to help him escape from the Centre, but you came first."

Jarod smiled, impressed by her confession, "Why?"

She shrugged, "I visited him in his room because I needed to see him. He was _you_ , Jarod. I suddenly felt like I was eleven years old again…"

"I know what you mean."

"Do you?" Parker asked, "To you, Gemini was a clone, Jarod. But to me…it was like going back to the past and becoming that little girl again. When I looked at Gemini, I saw _you_. I saw the little boy who looked just like him. I told him that I cared for you, but I never let you know. And I realized that when we were kids I saw pain in your eyes, but I looked away. I couldn't do the same mistake with that little boy. I **had** to help him."

Jarod had been caressing her arms while listening to her. He'd always thought that Parker didn't care about the boy, now he'd been proven wrong. She always surprised him.

"His name is Jeremy, by the way. Like the song. He likes _Pearl Jam_ , you know. One thing we have in common."

Parker smiled, "One thing _we_ have in common. I guess the men of your family always have the same effect on me. I'm always distracted by their charm. I've never been able to put a bullet in your lovely brains."

"Are you talking about my father?"

Parker nodded with a smile, "When I spoke to him I realized at once he hadn't killed my mother, even before he told me the truth. He's just like you, Jarod. He's honest, humble and generous. I felt safe those few minutes, during our conversation. I only wish he knew how much he helped me."

"You'll tell him yourself, Parker." Jarod told her, "And what about Kyle?"

"I asked him the same thing. I wanted to know if he had killed my mother and he denied it. But Kyle wasn't like you, Jarod. He was weird, a tortured soul. And yet, I saw understanding in his eyes. There were love and fear in his gaze…I'm so sorry that I was the cause of his death."

"You weren't, Parker. I was so afraid for your life, that night. You were very brave to hit your brother like you did. But Kyle's death…it was all Lyle's fault."

"It's always his fault…" Parker commented bitterly.

Jarod tried to ease the emotions that were surfacing again, "Now I understand why Jeremy always asks about you! You might have stunned him pretty well, Miss Parker."

"Must be genetic", she prodded him.

"Enough talking for now", Jarod hushed her with a passionate kiss.

"I thought…you wanted…to know…everything…" she said between the kisses.

' _God, they should outlaw his tongue'_ , Parker thought.

"Later", Jarod purred in her ears.

* * *

That night they talked a lot. Jarod felt as if they had opened a Pandora's box full of secrets, truth, memories and emotions. He'd never spoken so much in his entire life. And the pretender was the best, when it came to using words. But Parker turned out to be even better than him, maybe she just needed to get everything off her chest, once and for all.

Jarod asked her about his escape from the Centre, he wanted to know if Parker had something to do with it, seeing that she was in the SI department at that time. She hadn't helped him, but sometimes, when she was alone, she liked watching his surveillance cameras, just to know what he was doing. When she'd come back from Corporate, she couldn't muster up the courage to visit him. She confessed she'd been missing him since she'd come back from University, but she'd been feeling neglected because Jarod had never aswered her letters. Jarod explained that he _did_ wrote to her, but her father had intercepted his mails before they could leave the Centre. As he'd found out only later, all the letters were stored in Mr. Parker's office strongbox. Parker asked him if he'd found also hers. _He had_.

Then they shared a hard look, full of love. Jarod revealed that he'd actually read her letters, that's why he had understood there was still hope for them. That's why he'd never given up on her. Parker thanked him for his trust in _them_ , and Jarod asked her if she wanted to read the letters he'd written for her and she'd never been able to receive. Parker nodded, delightfully.

Parker told Jarod that her favorite color was red, that she also loved to dress in red. Jarod answered that he knew, and that he loved the way she dressed. He admitted he'd spent many nights dreaming of her, and in his fantasy Miss Parker always wore a very short skirt and ran after him with those incredibly high stilettos of hers.

Parker inquired him about his favorite color, and he replied it was violet. When she wanted to know why, he told her about Tricia Holmes and the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. Even more beautiful than Parker's.

Jarod asked her why she'd shot him after Fenigor's fake revelation about Major Charles being Catherine's killer. Parker sighed and admitted she'd run after Jarod and shot him in the certainty that she would never hit him. Jarod smiled.

Parker confessed that she was still anonymously financing Ronald Miller's family. Jarod remembered very well how much Parker had felt guilty for the detective's premature death. Miller had been the only one helping her to find Tommy's murderer and he'd been killed by the Centre. So Miss Parker had established a scholarship for his four children and every month she transferred a huge sum of money to Miller's wife bank account. Jarod asked her if she didn't want to meet the woman to tell her the truth, but Parker was sure it was much better if Mrs. Miller believed that the money came from her husband's life insurance.

Then the pretender asked her about the rabbit. Parker chuckled and realized once again what an affectionate and loving man Jarod could be. She told him that the bunny was now in Debbie's hands because she travelled too much to be a trustful owner. Jarod asked her what was its name and Parker replied that she'd called him _Snowball_ , because no other name would fit a white and fluffy little ball of fur like him.

Parker also revealed that Sydney had showed her the DSA about Kenny's death. She told him that she'd felt very sorry and that she hated Damon for what he did to him. When Jarod asked her if she hated Damon for killing his friend, Miss Parker replied that she hated Damon because he'd made Jarod believe he would be given his freedom and later he'd destroyed that hope. Jarod couldn't believe Parker's kindness and felt immediately the urgency to kiss her gently and slowly.

Jarod chose that moment to confess that he'd taken her side when Broots thought she was responsible for the attack to the Data Annex. When a very smiling Miss Parker asked him what he had told Broots, Jarod replied he'd just said something to convince him, probably a compliment. Parker was curious and tickled Jarod until he remembered precisely his sentence.

' _Miss Parker is many things, but she would never do that, especially to you. She doesn't have it in her heart or her eyes._ '

Needless to say that Parker jumped on him as soon as she heard those words.


	7. The Ex Parade

I love this chapter. I really wanted to write a whole MPJ conversation about former lovers.  
And it got pretty long and weird. But I think I made a nice job.  
Let me know what you think ;)

* * *

 **TEN YEARS AGO**

Without noticing, it was already 7.00 a.m. and Parker's stomach growled loudly. Between the laughs, the former huntress and prey decided to go out and have some breakfast.

Parker wasn't satisfied yet. There was still a topic they hadn't talked about, and she was far too curious to let go. Miss Parker wanted to know everything about Jarod's past relationships with other women.

Jarod asked the waitress almost everything they had on the menu, then Parker ordered a huge cup of cofee and scrumbled eggs. She was staring intently at the pretender, a slight smile on her face.

"What?" he asked her, slightly suprised of her good mood.

"Tell me about Zoe", she suddenly said.

Jarod almost choked on the fruit juice he was drinking and Parker smiled in satisfaction.

After coughing for at least twenty seconds, Jarod looked back at her and noticed that her smile was still there. 'Well, _why not_?', he thought.

"What do you want to know?"

"I'm pretty sure you're not together anymore. If you were, I would probably kill you after tonight."

Jarod grinned and Parker thought he was extraordinarily attractive whenever he smiled like that, "I haven't been seeing her for almost a year, Parker."

"Well, then I want to know why. What happened? I thought you were in love with her."

Jarod huffed, "Love is a huge word, and we both know how difficult it is to use it with the wrong person."

Parker nodded solemnly, but didn't speak. Her thought – and probably also Jarod's – went immediately to Tommy.

"Almost two weeks after our _friendly_ rendezvous with Alex, I met Zoe. I needed to take a break. I wanted to forget about the Centre and our mothers, at least for a while. So when Zoe asked me to make a trip with her I thought it might be a good idea to have some fun and…distract myself." Jarod tried to hide his smile at Parker's wince when he said the word _fun_ , "We went to California, we were having a very good time together."

"But?" she sighed. Maybe listening to Jarod speaking about his former girlfriends wasn't a good idea.

Jarod smiled, "How did you know there was a ' _but'_?"

Miss Parker shrugged and smiled at him. She knew him pretty well, after all.

"We were doing the most incredible things together, and yet whenever she…kissed me…" Again he stopped, trying to analyze Miss Parker's reaction, "I couldn't help but thinking about Alex's words."

"What kind of genius would seriously ponder words coming from an insane sociopath?" Parker scolded him.

Jarod had a sip of his juice, "Never wondered why I came to save you and Mr. Parker that day at the shipyard?" when he saw her shaking her head, he continued, "Alex and I met at the Opera House, where I managed to save the Swedish Ambassador. He shot me, then I ran after him and when I reached him, he told me something."

Jarod shrugged and sighed, "Something I've known all my life, but that I'd never really admitted to myself before that day."

"What?"

* * *

 _Alex was talking through the bars separating him from Jarod._

" _Luring you was simple. It's that flaw in your character that made it so easy. Always risking your life for somebody who's not important to your world."_

 _Jarod stood up, punching the iron gate and shouting, "The Ambassador is important to the world!"_

 _Alex looked amused, "Not the world._ _ **Your**_ _world. The Swedish Ambassador? She's nothing to your world."_

 _Jarod leaned his head against the wall, shattered and unable to respond._

" _But Miss Parker is."_

 _Jarod glared at Alex, his eyes willing to kill the chameleon. How could he possibly know Miss Parker? And did he have any plans, for her?_

" _In fact, you have no idea how important to your life she really is…"_

 _Jarod stared at him, more and more worried, wide-eyed for the anger._

" _And after today, you'll never know."_

* * *

"So this is why that whacky lunatic kidnapped my father! So that he could lure me to the shipyard and kill me, everything just to..."

"To strike me."

Miss Parker swallowed hard, no longer hungry.

"Alex wanted to kill you in front of my eyes, he wanted to show me that saving all those strangers was useless, if I couldn't save someone important to **my** world."

"And Ethan told you where to find me…"

Jarod smiled, the thought of his lost brother closed his stomach, "Yes. I went completely nuts, I couldn't believe I was going to lose you without ever telling you how much important you really were to me."

Parker smiled at him, "And what does this have to do with Zoe?"

"Whenever I kissed her…well, it just didn't feel…right. I mean, there was this incredible woman, asking for some affection, and all I could think about was…that I wanted her to be someone else."

Parker had never blushed in her life, before. But at that moment she turned at least a little pink. Jarod avoided looking at her face, he was blushing too. Which was very weird, seing that they'd just spent the last night naked in the same bed.

He coughed in embarassment, "Well, Zoe felt that detachment. I guess anyone would have. She didn't realize it was about a woman, though, she was sure I felt uncomfortable because I still feel guilty for her kidnap."

"What did you tell her?"

"The truth. Part of, at least. I told her about my abduction when I was a child, I explained everything about my pretender skills, about the Centre. I told her enough, and before you ask, I didn't go into detail, I didn't want to put her in further danger. But I've made a mistake anyway."

Parker chuckled, "You told her about me."

' _Poor Jarod_ ', she thought, ' _A childlike pretender who can't understand jealous women's scorn_ '.

"Well, it slipped from my mouth when I told her that you were Lyle's sister and also my huntress. She wondered who you were and I…well, I…I _sighed_."

Parker tried to imagine the moment.

Jarod _always_ sighed. For relief, for wrath, for hope, for sadness. That was one of his typycal mannerisms. She'd become pretty good in interpreting what Jarod's sighs meant.

But she'd known him a lifetime, unlike Zoe.

"Then Zoe asked me what your first name was and I answered that it is a secret I wouldn't reveal not even in my deathbed."

Parker smiled in satisfaction, "What did she respond?"

"In spite of what you think, she's pretty smart. She understood immediately that our relationship was more than the _you-run-and-I-chase_ I told her it was, so I had to tell her truth. You know, that you were my childhood friend at the Centre and then your father sent you away. That when you came back you'd become the cold _Ice Queen_ who'd been chasing me for years. You know, the same old story I tell everyone to explain our complicated and sick relationship."

The waitress arrived with their food and Jarod stopped his tale to let her put the dishes on the table. Parker started to eat her eggs, Jarod threw himself headlong into his pancakes. He continued his tale between the morsels.

"Well, Zoe…she couldn't understand why I cared for you even if you were my enemy. And I can't blame her. It's difficult to explain _us_ …if you are not _one of us_ , isn't it?"

Parker nodded and sighed, "Sometimes I wonder how would I had ever told Tommy about you. Maybe I've never told him the truth about me and the Centre because it would have been too difficult. The fact that you actually knew him before me…" Jarod swallowed and stared at her in apprehension, then Parker continued, "Well, it changed everything. But before having the news, I often asked myself how would I explain our relationship to Thomas. Obviously at that time I hadn't realized that I was in love with you, yet."

Jarod exhaled the longest breath of his life. ' _There you go, one of those sighs, again_ ', Parker thought.

"Well, Zoe and I continued our trip. I tried to mention your name the least possible, I thought Zoe deserved it. I guess she probably was more in love with me than I ever was. I cared deeply for her, I helped her living through her cancer, I still love her. But that was not…you know."

Parker knew.

"The day we were leaving from Los Angeles she opened my suitcase, the one with all the DSAs. I also keep my most important belongings there, including pictures of my family. My mother's, Emily's, my father's, Kyle's…and yours."

Parker opened her eyes wide, "You keep _my_ picture with you?!"

"Actually…" Jarod lifted his hand and move his middle and index fingers to show her the number 2.

"Which pictures?"

"The first is the one you keep in the frame on your bedside table."

"The one with me and my mother?"

"I sneaked into your house one night and I made a copy. It's a wonderful picture. And before you mention it, I felt entitled to take it because…oh, maybe you don't even remember but…"

"You were the one who took it." Miss Parker nodded.

Jarod smiled, "You remember?"

"Yes, I do. We were at the Centre and she asked you to take a picture because she wanted you to have it. She died before giving it back to you."

He nodded, close to tears, "I must admit I stole the second photo. It was in an album you kept in you bedroom. I guess Broots was the one who took it because you were with Debbie, it was last Christmas and you two were feeding _Snowball_."

"And to think that I accused poor Broots of stealing it!" she replied, faking anger.

"Well, Zoe wasn't so condescending when she saw them. She said that you only keep photos of people you really love. So she asked me how much important you were to me."

* * *

" _Like Sydney, the psychiatrist who kept you prisoner all your life and deserves to be considered as you father, though he's guilty like all the others? Like Broots, a man you think of as a friend and that you helped many times even if it is his job to hunt you? How much important is Miss Parker to your world, Jarod? I want to know!"_

 _Zoe's words only made Jarod think even more about Alex. He couldn't lie._

" _More", he confessed to Zoe. "She's probably the most important person to me. Alex was right…" he said, more to himself than to Zoe._

 _The woman stared at him in disbelief._

" _I'm so sorry Zoe. You were right, I can't pretend that Miss Parker doesn't mean anything to me, because she's_ _ **everything**_ _to me. And you helped me understand that."_

" _Well, you're welcome!" she replied._

" _Zoe…I'm so sorry to disappoint you… I know this might look like a stockholm syndrome towards my huntress…"_

" _Well, I've always known…I really hoped it was just paranoia, but you were different from the first second of this trip. So…you love her?"_

* * *

"What did you tell her?"

Jarod smiled, "I guess my answer was something sloppy like, ' _Since I was eleven_ '…"

"She was very pissed?"

"Nope. She smiled."

"What?!"

"She's a romantic soul, she wanted to know if you loved me too. Imagine her reaction when I told her I've never asked you about your feelings and you didn't know about mine."

"What a show. So sorry I wasn't there." she teased him.

Jarod squeezed his eyes, pretending to be annoyed by her words, "Well you should thank Zoe, because she's one of the reasons I told you the truth in Glasgow. Even if I knew that it would have been more difficult than any pretend I'd ever done before."

"So you two are still friends?"

Jarod grinned, "Yes, we are. I helped her fighting cancer and going home to her family. You can't forget something like that, Miss Parker. We finished our trip as the best of friends."

Parker was glowing. She couldn't believe how much she really loved that man. And above all she didn't want to let him know how much his omnipresent grins affected her.

"Well Zoe must be very…interesting to deal with."

"You have no idea. She's the craziest woman I've ever met. And she's full of life. And beautiful."

"There better be a but, genius."

Jarod grinned once more and leaned in to kiss her from his side of the table.

"But…I belong to you."

"Mmm…you'd better get a tattoo with ' _Miss Parker's property_ ' written on you butt."

"I might consider it, but now it's my turn. I've been wondering just one thing from last night…"

"Tommy?" she asked in advance.

Jarod nodded, but in silence. She didn't need to hear the question, he didn't need to ask.

"I truly loved him. Like anyone else before. That was a different kind of love, for a man who was honest, generous and good. I guess in a way Thomas reminded me of you."

"Really?" he smiled tenderly.  
"Thomas was the man you might have become if the Centre hadn't exploited your skills. He was loyal, brave, funny, handsome and he believed in his ideals. He was everything I could wish for. And yet, I never told him that I loved him."

"You didn't have the time." Jarod reminded her.

"I don't know. Thomas was such a good man, but I was scared for our commitment, maybe I wasn't ready to tell someone that I loved him. Maybe I knew deep inside that you and I were too connected to create a solid relationship with Thomas. When I agreed to leave with him, I really hoped I could forget you, for good." Miss Parker wasn't hungry anymore, her eggs were cold by now and she was playing with her fork, "I loved him very much, Jarod. I regret his death every single day."

Jarod nodded, "Me too. I often wonder what would I have done if you'd really left with him."

Miss Parker knew the answer, even if Jarod wasn't sure.

"You would have disappeared, Jarod. Without me at the Centre, there would have been no need to contact me or Sydney."

"Perhaps you're right. I've always felt a connection with the _people_ from my past, certainly not with the place that stole my freedom. And I knew Tommy would have made you happy, so I would have let you go."

"And what about me? Living in doubt, not knowin what happened to you? Wondering where you were, everyday…I guess I would have bought newspaper just in hopes of finding news about a _good Samaritan_ appearing in Portland to save the little guy."

Jarod chuckled and so did she, but their thoughts soon came back to Thomas.

"I also wonder if Tommy would have told me the truth about you."

"He couldn't."

"Why?"

"I made him promise not to, ever."

Parker sighed, she didn't understand the pretender's behavior, "Jarod, why hiding such an important thing from me? Why not let me know the best part of you? Maybe everything would have been different…if you'd told me before…" she sighed.

"I don't think so, Parker. Today it's obvious that I sent Tommy to meet you because I cared for you, but just because **now** you know that I love you. If he'd told you back then, you would have thought that I was trying to manipulate you. And I really wanted you to leave, to be free. Tommy could save you from the Centre…"

Parker wanted to object, but she changed her mind, "Well, it's useless to think about ifs and buts. Thomas is dead and it's all my fault. He left a great void inside me…"

Jarod took her hand, "It's so good to be able to confess you that I feel exactly the same. He was my friend, you know. We were _real_ friends. We spoke often and he knew that I was a pretender. Maybe you were right before. Maybe Tommy was like me. He was alone, he'd lost his parents when he was young." Parker nodded in understanding, "I saw something in Thomas, something I'd seen in you, too. He was strong but vulnerable, just like you. I was sure you would fit together like two pieces of the same puzzle. And believe me, Parker. I wouldn't have intruded your life anymore, if Tommy hadn't died."

"I know." Miss Parker squeezed Jarod's hand. "I think that's why I love you most, because you were ready to put my happiness at the first place, even if that meant you had to give up on us."

Jarod's hand left hers and came back to the fork. Parker let him eat his pancakes for a couple of minutes, then she spoke again.

"What about Nia?"

The fork Jarod was holding fell on the dish as he stared at Miss Parker with a smirk on his face.

"What's this, the _Ex parade_?"

Miss Parker shook her head, "Did you love her?"

"You can't love a person you've known for two days, Parker, but you can care deeply about her."

"What happened to her?"

"She's married, she has two children. I was very glad to discover that she'd found the right man. I also went to her wedding."

Parker looked at him in disbelief, "You went to your first lover's wedding with another man?"

Jarod shook his head, "I know you don't understand. But Nia and I shared something. We understood each other completely, I met her in a moment of my life when I didn't know almost anything about myself or my family, I wasn't even aware of having siblings. She was alone like me, we consoled each other and I felt loved for the first time in my adult life."

"Well, I met her after you left. I knew that she wasn't the usual target of one of your pretends. She described you like a lover, not like the hero who'd saved the day."

Jarod noticed that Parker was blushing again, but not for the shame. It was something different.

"You were jealous!" he taunted her. When Miss Parker didn't reply immediately, Jarod understood he was right.

"Ok, maybe I was." She admitted. "I kept listening to your conversation with Sydney and thinking about our first kiss as children."

Jarod smirked again, he'd never felt so satisfied before, "Well, I kept watching the DSA of our first meeting…"

"What a day…" she whispered.

"Yeah…" Jarod smiled. "And Tommy Tanaka?" Jarod blurted out suddenly, looking intentely at her. Miss Parker started to laugh and Jarod realized he'd never seen her so amused before.

"Well, Tommy was a…seasonal affair. We just had some very good sex, nothing more. You know…" she purred, "Japanese men are real masters of the art."

Jarod grinned, "Better than a pretender?"

Parker's voice took on a low sensual tone as she leaned over the table, "Absolutely not."

She kissed him slowly and with passion, trying to convince the pretender of what she'd just said. When she sat back, she eased the tension by saying, "You should have seen Lyle's face when he saw Tommy and I kissing in my father's office…" she chuckled.

But her laugh soon faded, mentioning Lyle had brought Ethan back to their minds again. Parker noticed that Jarod's good mood was disappearing, so she tried to keep on the conversation.

"So, the _black widow_?"

Jarod looked at her reproachfully, "Kristi was the worst error in judgment I've ever made. I was sure she was the innocent who needed my help, instead she was the culprit."

Miss Parker heard resentment in his voice.

"I tried to help her after her husband's death, but she manipulated me. And to think at that time I was trying to teach you something about trusting the right people, instead I was the first who put trust in the wrong person!"

"That's when you sent me my mother's quote about trust?"

Jarod nodded, "When Kristi tried to kill me, she lured me into a house that was going to explode by telling me that she loved me. Later, I often wondered how could anyone lie about loving someone…"

"I don't know." She shook her head. "I've told the big words just to two persons."

"If you say that Tommy Tanaka is one of them, I'll have to shoot you with your own gun."

Parker laughed, "No, you moron. The first was my mother, and since yesterday night, you."

Jarod exhaled slowly and his eyes went from the dish on the table to hers, trying to remember how amazing Miss Parker had been the night before.

"You know that I really love you, don't you?" she asked.

"Yes, I do. And you should know that, leaving out my family members, you are the only one."

Miss Parker smiled slightly and decided that she was enjoying this _confession time_.

"And Michael Patrick?"

Parker punched the table, "Oh, come on, this isn't fair!"

"You brought up the _black widow_!" he stated, quipping.

"Yeah, talking about errors in judgment…I didn't know that Raines had hired him to find you. We've known each other for long, we used to fence together."

Jarod looked at her in astonishment, "And I thought I knew everything about you!"

"In your dreams, lab rat. Well, we spent a few hours together while you were playing with fire in Pittsburgh, he had amazing sex with me while I had quite mediocre with him."

Jarod smiled for her remark.

"I didn't even know if he was really married."

"He wasn't." Jarod commented. "I had some research done, later. But I often wondered why you slept with a man if you knew he was married. I was a bit…"

Parker sighed, "Disappointed?" Jarod nodded, "That wasn't definitely the best part of me, Jarod. Sydney warned me, he told me I didn't have enough healthy relationships in my life to compensate for what I was doing just for fun. That I was falling down an upward spiral because I couldn't keep my feelings about you in check, and that would be my ruin."

At that moment, Jarod realized that Sydney had been a surrogate father to him, but also to Miss Parker. And he was thankful for that.

"Well I was exhausted, I never managed to catch you and you behaved awfully with me…late phone calls, mind games, pranks and clues…I guess everything I was feeling for you came to the surface with Michael. In the wrong way. End of story."

"That was after or before you broke the finger of an Italian friend of mine?" Jarod asked with a mischievous smile on his face.

Parker chuckled, "Later. Oh, Giuseppe…" she said.

"You really liked him, didn't you?"

"What did he tell you about us?"

Jarod shrugged, "You dated for a month before he realized you were far too woman for him."

Parker grinned, "I tried to corrupt his pure soul, but Giuseppe was a good guy, never really interested in satifying my…whims." She explained, almost sensually.

Jarod smirked, "What a fool!" Parker nodded in satisfaction "Well, I guess this is it. No more former lovers to talk about, am I right?"

"Well, I've heard something about that profiler, Rachel Burke…"

Jarod grimaced. He was sure Parker didn't know about her, but he was wrong. She knew him very well, after all. And she was smiling again, "Come on, Boy Genius. It was my job to know everything about you, wasn't it?"

Jarod nodded, "Rachel was different. I helped her with a stalker who was bothering her and we…liked each other. Rachel knew that I was no FBI agent, but I never told her the truth about me. We found solace in each other's arms in a very dark period of my life. I hadn't seen Zoe for months and I didn't speak often with you either. It's been a while, actually."

"Well, for being a man who's been isolated for 30 years, you've scratched more than one itch."

Jarod laughed, "It's really funny, Miss Parker. If I didn't know you better, I'd say you _really_ are jealous of my former girlfriends."

"You'd wish!" she replied, naughtily. She waited for him to stop laughing, then she stared at him lovingly.

"Parker."

"What?"

Jarod's eyes narrowed, "What did you feel when you found out that…we could be brother and sister?"

"Oh, speaking of which, you could have spared me calling me " _Sis_ " that night, it was so unfair!"

Jarod smiled, "I'm sorry, Parker. But I couldn't resist."

She shooked her head and waited for the pretender to talk, "Well, I'm going to tell what **I** feel. When I found the red files I was very excited. But all that happiness disappeared as soon as I realized the eighth file was yours. I couldn't help thinking about the words I've read in Catherine's diary, what she said about her son. I started to believe that I could actually be your brother, I almost convinced myself."

Miss Parker's heart rate increased rapidly while Jarod kept talking, "Well at first I thought it could be wonderful, the best thing ever. I thought I could convince you to join me, my brain was telling me that it could be the solution to all my problems. I could come back to the Centre as a heir, a Parker. Not a lab rat anymore, but Mr. parker's son. I had all these incredible scenarios coming to my head, where you and I would change the Centre and begin to rule it at our own way, as Catherine would have wanted…"

Parker smiled shyly, that was a nice thought, indeed.

"Then I started to panic. My heart made me understand that it wasn't what I really wanted. I couldn't stand the idea that the only woman I'd ever loved…would be the only one I would never have. It was unbearable, an overwhilming idea, I simply couldn't accept it. While I was waiting for the test results narrowing your brother's identity, I even began to make terrible plans."

Parker almost closed her eyes, "Meaning?"

"I planned not to tell you, at least for a while."

"What?! How could you – "

"Well, as soon as I got the results I calmed down and started to think coherently again. And I felt, you know…an incredible, huge _relief_."

Parker stared at him in disbelief, "You would have hidden such an important information from me just to keep the status quo?"

"I felt it would be better that way, what we had…"

"What we had sucked, Jarod!"

He laughed at her angry tone. After a couple of seconds, she laughed too.

"Well, all I can tell you is that when we were in Oakview, with Angelo…and Davy…Well, I'd never heard my heart beating so fast, before that night. I was excited, and I was upset. I wanted to jump on you and to kill you at the same time. I couldn't believe that the boy I'd shared my first kiss with…could be my brother. I knew I still felt something for that little boy, deep inside."

"Did you?"

"Yeah." She sighed, "And suddenly that stupid lab rat I used to get in trouble with when I was a kid could actually be my brother, how was I supposed to deal with something like that?!"

Parker sipped some coffee, "Anyway, before your _revelation_ , I thought, ' _Well, it would be nice. It would be nice to have Jarod as a brother._ ' So I gained control over myself again."

"It would have been nice indeed, Parker." Jarod smiled.

"Oh, stop it! Do you really think that after last night?"

Jarod glanced at her with a provocative grin on his mouth, then burst out laughing, "Nope."

Parker laughed along, then she sighed, "The truth is I really wanted Angelo to be my twin."

"I know", Jarod smiled, grabbing her hand.

"Truth wasn't easy to accept. I had to face the fact that my brother was a monster."

For a second, Jarod saw Ethan's corpse floating on the back of his mind.

"I had no choice but to accept it."

Jarod nodded with complicity and understanding. He also had his difficulties to deal with the fact that Kyle was his brother when he still thought of him as a killer and a kidnapper.

Parker slowly breathed in, trying not to think about Lyle for a moment.

"Just one more thing. More personal." She said.

"What?"

" _The Saddest little Valentine_..."

Jarod felt ashamed and uncomfortable, "I know, that was silly."

"That's not the first word that came to my mind when I read it. Why did you send me that candy, Jarod? Wasn't it too obvious? For a moment, I really thought you cared for me."

Jarod smiled, "I wrote that book in hopes I could destroy the walls you'd built around your heart. Later I met this woman I learned something from, a tough contractor who made me realize that the strongest women are often the most vulnerable, too. And when I called you that night on Valentine's Day I felt like I was actually closer to obtaining my purpose."

"Jarod, I behaved like a bitch that night. I lied unashamedly and I scolded you as usual!"

"Yes you did." They both laughed. "But I also heard your breath and your voice through the phone, they felt different. You asked me what the hell I wanted from you, the answer was under your eyes, written on that candy. I wanted your love. I tried to tell you with the book, the candy, the call. I even thought about coming in person, but I was afraid you weren't ready."

"I wasn't. I probably would have taken your sorry ass back to the Centre, Jarod. But…I can't be sure. Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you'd involved me in your life before? Without all those stupid clues and pranks, just by telling me the truth about your feelings…and not waiting until now…"

"Yes, I do. But I couldn't afford trusting you, Parker. I couldn't trust nobody. You and Sydney were the only important people of my life. He was like a father, you were my best friend. Do you have any idea how traumatic was for me to find out that you were the ones chosen to pursue me? For months I've blamed Sydney for everything and denied my true feelings for you. Then I slowly started to accept it. Like when I sent you the rabbit for Christmas…or when we were in Bahia Grande together, wasn't it obvious that all I wanted to do was to kiss you?"

"Did you?" she asked tenderly.

"I thought that if anything would happen between us, you needed to make the first step. And I was right, because you did, yesterday."

Parker sighed. "Jarod, I was your pursuer. You played with me like a mouse with a cat. You sent me all those clues about my mother to drive me mad and…"

"No, Parker, that was never my goal. All I wanted to do was to teach you something. I wanted to tell you the truth. The real truth, not the one you'd been told by Mr. Parker. And if I'm sure of one thing is that I've never lied to you, did I?"

Parker shook her head, "Never. Not even once."

Jarod smiled and took her hand, squeezing it gently. "All right. Am I allowed to finish my breakfast, now?"

Parker kissed his hand and let it go, then she watched him lovingly while he finished his food.

"Jarod."

He gazed deeply into her eyes.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, Parker."

He looked out of the window and sighed, "I don't know."


	8. Mr and Mrs Miller

Let's bring some action.

The story will develop, I promise. Just give me time ;)

* * *

 **TODAY**

The woman once known as _Miss Parker_ used to drive her children to school everyday. All the teachers and the other children's parents knew her as Mrs Miller, pretended wife of the most adorable pediatrician of Rock Cove, Jarod Miller. They'd chosen this surname as soon as they'd decided to live in Maine, in a place that was very dear to both of them. Jarod had his own office in the centre of the town, while Parker worked at home. She had become a painter when she'd finally realized the importance of her inner sense. She loved painting, her mother had passed this passion down to her many years before.

But the most important thing in her life was her family.

First there was Jarod, then her two children, Ethan Kyle and Catherine Faith (whose names were an obvious homage to Jarod and Parker's dead relatives). Their first son was 12 and their little girl was turning 10 the following December. Parker still couldn't believe that ten years have passed since _that_ night.

In that late March of 2012, she still felt safe and happy. Nothing had come to ruin their newfound happiness, not since their last encounter with Lyle ten years before.

Parker and Jarod hadn't really got married, but they wore wedding rings and spoke with other people as if they really were. And they'd been Mr and Mrs Miller for ten years, by now. There were very few persons who knew the truth about them. And they were all living very far, hidden in Florida and with faked identities. The only other man who knew about their former ' _personas_ ' was Ben Miller, who still lived in Lake Catherine. Parker and Jarod always spent their holidays to his inn and the children loved it.

The school they had chosen for Ethan and Catherine was close to their home, so that the parents would run in case of danger. The two children loved each other very much and always played together. There had never been jealousy between them, maybe because they were both gifted, like their parents. Ethan was the most intelligent boy in his class and Catherine had inherited her mother's inner sense and stubborness, which made her the most fascinating girl her teachers had ever seen. Parker and Jarod were very proud of them, but also scared by their talents. They both knew that if the Centre ever found out, they might steal the children, just as they'd done with Jarod many years before. So the pretender had decided to prevent any harm to his son and daughter by putting cameras in the house, at school, at Catherine's ballet school, at Ethan's dressing room and field at the sports center. Every place visited by his children was always under control, nothing would escape his careful look.

Even if Parker knew that Jarod's attitude was slightly paranoic and misplaced, she also realized that he was just a very loving and worried father. The Centre was still very much alive, they only needed to make a mistake to be found. And until now, they hadn't.

* * *

Whenever Parker drove Ethan and Katie to school, she always looked around to be sure that nobody was following her or the children. So it didn't take her long to feel something different that morning.

"Mom, remind daddy that he promised to come and fetch us after school."

Parker smiled at her son, "Don't worry little monkey, daddy is home, he took the day off."

"Mom, stop calling me that!" Ethan replied. He hated when his mother didn't realize he wasn't a baby anymore.

"Ok then, _Old Pirate_ , see ya later."

Ethan sighed and exited the car while his mother laughed along with his sister. Katie warned her mother, "He's going to be upset with you for that. I don't want him to spoil the party later."

"What party?" she asked, getting out of the car and closing the door behind her, while her daughter did the same.

"You know, the very secret party you and daddy are planning for tonight. We still don't know what we're going to celebrate, but both Ethan and I know that it's something very important."

Parker stared at her daughter in desbelief. She was as smart as her brother, even more than she had been at her age.

Parker sighed, "Pumpkin, I swear you two grow up too fast."

Her daughter smiled and kissed her goodbye, "Well, I still love being called that. So don't worry for my growth. And I'm not ashamed of you kissing me in public places. Not yet."

Parker watched her daughter run towards the school and sighed again. She saw so much of Jarod and herself in them. Ethan was scorbutic and moody like her but also generous and spontaneous as Jarod. Katie was cute and compassionate like her mother, but she also had Jarod's cunning and perspicacity. They were just amazing.

She looked around once more and that was the moment she noticed him. Again.

Her eye for detail was almost proverbial. She couldn't be mistaken. She had already seen that man three times in a week.

He looked like another caring father, taking his child to school and waving his hand to say goodbye, but her inner sense told her something completely different. She dind't like him. And she hadn't actually ever seen his child with him.

Everyday Miss Parker parked the car in front of the school and turned off the engine. She was methodical and precise, she never changed her habits, to make sure her children were always safe and sound. She was never late, nor early. And that man was always there at the very same time. This could be no coincidence. No other parent could be so anxious for his child's safety.

And then, as soon as she left, the man disappeared too. She also caught him looking at her, once. But she might as well have imagined it because it had been just for a second.

Parker didn't want to upset Jarod, but she couldn't help it anymore. She was feeling nervous and she needed to tell her _husband_ about that man. She wanted to be sure he wasn't a danger for them and the only way was to ask Jarod to investigate.

* * *

When she arrived home, she found Jarod in the kitchen. He was drinking a cup of cofee and reading the newspaper. In front of him, on the table, a laptop was showing the videos of the hidden surveillance cameras he'd secretly installed at school. The two videos were showing both Ethan and Katie's classrooms.

"Looking for the little guy in need of help, Boy Genius?"

Jarod almost chocked with his coffee. He moved the newspaper to look carefully at Parker and realized at once how much her mood had changed since two hours before.

"What's going on? The last time you called me one of your stupid nicknames we were still on the run from the Centre."

Parker sighed, "I'm sorry, Jarod…Ethan asked me to remind you that you promised to fetch them after school."

"I'm fully aware of my personal daily duties towards my children, but now I want to know what's bothering you."

"It's just a bad feeling I've been having…"

"A bad feeling?! Since when?" he inquired.

"A few days."

Jarod stood up and approached her, "Tell me about it."

"Well, there's a man…I've never seen him before, but he always shows up at school just at the same time I arrive there with Ethan and Katie"

Jarod felt his heart beating again. "That's all?"

Parker didn't like his reply, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Parker, come on, he's just a man taking his child to school…Did he ever approach you?"

"No."

"Did he…annoy you in any way?"

"No."

"Did he ever talk to you?"

"No, but…"

"Parker, listen to me. I know that today is not easy to deal with, but I thought we'd already talked about it."

"That has nothing to do with it! I don't like that man, Jarod…And you've always been the one to ask me to trust my inner sense!"

Jarod shrugged, "This might not be you inner sense, maybe you are just feeling neglected because for the first time in your life a man didn't notice your amazing legs."

Parker smiled when Jarod's malicious grin appeared on his face, "You're far from it, Jarod. Believe me, I had a…gut feeling…"

"Parker, don't you think you're just a bit paranoic? I mean, we already have cameras to control our children, what do you want more?"

"Do you need me to remind you that the Centre is still working? That your brother Kyle and our brother Ethan's killer, my evil twin Lyle, is still there?" she yelled.

"I know that." He replied, annoyed.

"Our perfect life can be destroyed in just one second if Lyle decides to put an end to it. Do you need me to remind you that?"

Jarod was looking angry, now. Parker didn't like fighting with him. Actually they hadn't been quarreling since their escape from Dover. It had been ten years.

"I'm…I'm sorry, Jar. I didn't mean to yell at you like that."

Jarod's eyes went from her eyes to her mouth and back. He decided it wasn't worth it to fight with Parker in such a lovely day. After all, it was like an anniversary, to them.

"I'm sorry, too. It's not that I don't believe you, Miss Parker." Parker rolled her eyes at the sound of the title, but Jarod ignored her, "I just don't want you to imagine things."

"But you called me _Miss_ like you used to ten years ago."

Jarod sighed. She was right.

"It's not my imagination, Jar. It's my inner sense warning me about something very dangerous. Please, promise me you're going to check."

He stared at her in total wonder. "How come you always make me do whatever you want?"

Parker chuckled and leaned in to speak to his ear, "You're my little slave, Jar."

Jarod felt a shiver all down his back and suddenly felt the urge of kissing Parker, but she stopped him just as his lips were crushing to hers.

"Do your homework, first. If you are a good boy, I might consider kissing you then."

She left him alone in their kitchen and Jarod felt a useless arousal reminding him of the amazing night of sex they shared the night before…

* * *

Chapter End Notes:

Still let me know what you think, if you want to!


	9. Basket Case

**TEN YEARS AGO**

* * *

The first thing Jarod and Parker did after the 'confession time' at the café was to retrieve Catherine's diary and Jarod's childhood letters from one of the pretender's ' _safe place_ '. Miss Parker had then spent a whole day reading her mother's diary, only to find out that Jarod was right. She wasn't ready to have it, before. She would have thought that Catherine was crazy, at best. Her mother's words reflected her behaviour towards other people. She was compassionate and generous, all qualities Parker could only dream of duplicating. She talked a lot about Faith, about Jarod, about Angelo. She expressed her sorrow for the loss of her son because she didn't know that Lyle was still alive. Parker felt very sorry at the realization that Catherine had really died in that conviction. But she also felt amazed and proud whenever she read her mother's deepest feelings about her. Catherine worshipped her daughter and Parker could only regret once again the fact that she'd lost her mother so soon.

When she finally let go of the diary, Jarod was still working at his laptop, waiting for her comments about it. But Parker wasn't satisfied yet, she wanted to read Jarod's letters, too.

The pretender was sure she would get tired soon, seeing that he'd found 150 letters written within the years. He'd been used to write to her at least once a week, until he'd finally decided that writing to his old friend wasn't worth it anymore.

But Miss Parker didn't stop. She went on and on, all night long.

When she let fall on the bed the last piece of paper, she also felt Jarod's eyes scrutinizing her.

She was crying, and when Jarod saw tears in her eyes he started to feel his nose itching, as if he was going to cry, too.

They stood up at the same time, running towards each other. He hugged her ever so gently as she kissed every inch of his face, neck or hands she could reach.

"All this time…" she murmured.

But Jarod hushed her, "We'll make up for it. I promise."

* * *

And they did, indeed.

Life on the run wasn't easy. And not that they weren't having fun, because they were.

Miss Parker and Jarod were really making up for lost time. They talked a lot about the past, travelling from motel to motel, changing cars not to be tracked down too easily.

They had a lot of sex. And sex was incredible, actually.

Miss Parker soon realized that she was having the time of her life. She'd never been happier before, not even with Tommy. And that was rich, seing that the two fugitives were constantly followed by Centre sweepers.

Jarod was really missing his calls with Sydney, though. He would love to talk about his new relationship with Parker because he was full of expectation and hope for the future, but also doubts and fears. This was all new to him, he'd never seen Parker smiling so much before. It seemed to him that the little girl he once knew had finally managed to come back and defeat the evil _Ice Queen_ who had taken her place for so long. Parker's smile made him feel safe and happy.

And the greatest thing was when she touched him. She didn't even notice, but by putting her hand over Jarod's thigh while he was driving, or softly caressing his nape and neck, she always aroused him in a way the pretender would have never thought possible with other women. She also tried to encourage him when he felt lost and scared at the idea he would never find his mother. At times like those, Parker would just say something like, 'Watch it Boy Genius, a woman needs to talk with her partner's mother before deciding if he's worth the effort.'

When Jarod politely asked her what kind of effort she was talking about, she would simply shrug and smile under her sunglasses. And then, they simply laughed together.

She made him laugh. A lot.

She told him about her school years in Europe, she confessed how much she hated Japanese people and their formal everyday restraint, she also remembered a couple of funny moments shared with Thomas, without crying, neither mourning. Jarod decided it was also time to tell her how he and Thomas had met, and Parker listened to the story with a bitter smile on her face, trying not to be affected at the realization that she still felt guilty for Tommy's premature death, but that void had eventually been filled.

* * *

After two weeks, Jarod felt it was enough safe to contact Broots and Sydney. Parker was missing her former colleagues very much, even if she tried not to show. On the other hand, the pretender wanted to know if they had managed to reach the Keys without harm.

Jarod parked the car outside a café and followed Miss Parker who was already sitting on a bench outside, waiting for the waitress to come. He took his laptop with him, ready to start a connection with Broots. While he was working to cover the transfer data, Miss Parker ordered two cups: one of coffe for her and a huge one of ice cream for Jarod. Then she stared intently at the pretender, "You think they're ok?"

He smiled back at her. "We're going to find out soon."

A couple of minutes later Broots' face appeared on the monitor. Parker couldn't help but smile when she saw her lovable moron and Debbie on the other side of the videocall.

Jarod sighed, "It's good to see you, Broots. Where is Sydney?"

Debbie ran out of the room to call someone she was addressing to as 'Uncle Sydney'.

"How are you?" Miss Parker asked the technician.

"We're all fine. We've found your house, Jarod. We're all here. That weird little guy from Atlantic City…"

"Argyle?"

Broots nodded, "He helped us to settle down here. And that pilot friend of yours, Angela…she was very kind, she brought us to the Keys without even asking why. She just said that if it was for you, she would take us to the Moon and back."

Jarod blushed slightly and lowered his gaze, Parker looked at him in admiration. Broots noticed the glance the two of them were casting at each other, but he was interrupted by Sydney's arrival before he could investigate further.

"Parker! Jarod! Thank God you're fine! I was so worried for you…"

Parker almost cried when she saw the old man. She still remembered their last conversation and she really wanted to thank him. "I'm so glad you're safe, Syd." She told him, emotion evident in her voice. Jarod squeezed her hand in a way Sydney couldn't help but notice.

"Nicholas and Michelle?"

Sydney nodded, "They're here with us, and so is Angelo. We found him waiting for us with a box full of DSAs. He also had the files stolen from SL-27 the first day we found it, Parker."

Miss Parker remembered the occasion and sighed in desbelief, "He kept them all this time?!"

Sydney nodded. "Unfortunately there's no relevant information in them. I guess that's why he didn't tell us sooner."

"When are you coming?" Broots asked them.

Jarod looked at Parker and she exhaled slowly. How could they tell their friends what they were planning to do?

"Broots, we won't come. Not right away."

"Why, w- why wouldn't come? It's safe here and we'll be together, we can find a way to defeat the Centre and…"

"Broots, don't wet your pants!" Miss Parker interrupted him, "The Centre is after Jarod and me, not you."

Sydney sighed and turned around, he didn't want his _children_ to see him so worried for them. But Jarod knew him better, so he guessed at once what his former protector was thinking. "She's right, Sydney. It's the only way. We must be separated, for now. You have to stay hidden while Parker and I act as bait, we'll be careful not to let them come too close to ever catching us."

"Which won't happen, seeing that Boy Wonder doesn't intend to leave bread crumbs for Lyle anymore."

"Well, I'm not interested in the Centre anymore, I already found what I was looking for."

Sydney turned around immediately. He stared at the monitor, with acknowledgement appearing on his face as he looked at his protégé and surrogate daughter smiling at each other with gentleness, long forgotten the days spent as huntress and prey.

Miss Parker smiled, "I didn't let go, Sydney. I see it too, now. I gave those kids the gift they never had, before it was too late."

Sydney's smile enlightened his face as Parker told him, "Thank you."

Jarod looked at Parker with interest, oblivious to what she was referring too. And so was Broots, who gazed at Sydney with his mouth open.

"You're welcome, Parker."

"We have to go now. We'll be in touch." Jarod interrupted them.

"Be careful." Broots warned them.

But Sydney wasn't ready to say goodbye yet, "Jarod!"

The pretender gazed again at the monitor, looking expectantly at his former protector, "What?"

Sydney's eyes roamed from Jarod's image to Miss Parker's, "I'm glad you are in this together. I'm very proud, of both of you."

A soft smile returned on Parker's face when Jarod traced his fingers down her cheeks. Sydney chuckled and Broots' eyes almost fell on the floor.

"Guess what would they do if they saw us kissing?" Jarod asked her, then he purposely ended the call just as Parker was leaning in to him with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Oh my God. So they…they are together now? How could this be?" Broots asked in a whisper.

"I reckon that during this journey they've finally realized something very important." Sydney explained to him.

"What?" Broots urged him.

"That they couldn't lie to themselves anymore."

Broots noticed the huge smile on Sydney's face. He'd never seen him so satisfied before.

Syd patted his shoulder and exited the room, leaving Broots alone. It didn't take him long for starting to take in the news and accept it. Jarod and Miss Paker had belonged together since the beginning of that unreasonable pursuit, and Broots knew it. Only a blind man wouldn't notice Miss Parker's attempts to hide her real feelings for the pretender, and Broots had spent enough time with Jarod to realize that his main goal was often to protect Miss Parker or to help her discovering the truth. They'd known each other a lifetime, now they were only taking back what was theirs. They deserved to love and be loved and he was sure that no one else could love and understand Miss Parker more than Jarod.

"Now I see it in her eyes too, Jarod", he murmured to himself. He exited the room with a stupid grin on his face, looking for Debbie who would surely be enthusiastic for the good news.

* * *

Since the call with Sydney and Broots, Jarod's mind had been set on one purpose: he wanted to find his mother. He'd lost two brothers during the search of his family, he wasn't willing to lose anybody else, let alone Margaret.

"Why don't you contact your father?" Parker asked him one afternoon.

They were driving North, willing to reach Maine to visit the only familiar place they both knew, Ben's bed and breakfast in Lake Catherine. They wanted to see him and maybe hide for a while, and Parker wanted Jarod to rest and relax a couple of days while he decided what to do next.

The pretender sighed, "I can't, not yet. It's not safe, Parker. Lyle was enough mad to set dozens of sweepers on us, I want to hack into the Centre mainframe to find out what he is up to, but I can't do it without more equipment. I must be sure that they won't track us when I do it."

"I know. But we need to find your mother and maybe Major Charles has more clues on her whereabouts."

Jarod nodded, "You're probably right, but I don't want them to be in danger. They're in a safe place, Emily was still recovering after the 'accident' with Lyle…"

Parker stared at him, waiting for another explosion, but it didn't come.

"I can't believe he almost killed my sister, too." Jarod simply stated.

Parker shook her head. She'd never stood the idea that Lyle was her brother, before, and now even the mentioning of his name was like bringing bad luck on them.

"Jarod, we need to find out something about the Scrolls, too. We don't know anything useful about the Triumvirate, our search for Ethan took our total self-denial for a month. We don't even know if my father is really dead..."

Jarod looked at her for a second, trying not to taunt her, "Well, a few weeks ago you didn't even know if he was your biological father."

Parker didn't reply, she knew that he was right, but Jarod's words hurt nonetheless.

"I'm sorry, Parker. I didn't mean it", he excused himself.

"No, you did, Pez Head. But it's true, there's no need to deny it."

"There's no need to mention it, too."

Parker smiled at him sadly, "I just want answers, Jarod. There are too many unfinished business in our lives. I need closure."

"So do I."

"I also want to find my little brother…Last thing Broots told me is that nodoby had seen him in months. And I'm afraid of what Raines would do to him now that my father's not around anymore."

"I thought you didn't like the fact that Mr. Parker had a baby with…"

Parker stopped him before he could mention Brigitte, "I delivered him with my own hands, Jarod. I've loved him since I took him in my arms, he's a lovely baby."

She looked at Jarod, who was slowing down the car to have another stop. They'd been driving for hours, he really needed coffee before going on.

"What's his name?" Jarod asked her, innocently.

Parker opened her eyes wide and started to laugh, "I don't know!"

Jarod's eyes roamed over her face and then he burst into laughter along with her. It felt so good, almost cathartic.

"What kind of a twisted sick family the Parkers are, Jarod. Not knowing each other's first names…"

Jarod turned off the engine and took her hand in his, "Well, I know yours."

Parker nodded solemnly, then she noticed he was brooding again. His eyes always roamed around when he thought hard about something.

"What?" she asked him.

"I don't know." He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. "I mean, we are so far from the Centre, now. Every bond I had with that damned hell isn't there anymore. Sydney is safe, and so are Broots and Angelo. And now you're here with me, and…"

Parker simply smiled, encouraging him to go on.

"I'm not…interested anymore, Parker. I don't want to hear about Scrolls, lies, secrets. All I ever wanted is almost accomplished." He squeezed her hand again. "My mother is the only missing piece to complete my own puzzle."

Jarod looked back at her and moved his hand to push the hair from her face, then he caressed her cheek. "I know that I should destroy the Centre once and for all. I should inform the authorities, try to shut it down forever. But I'm tired, Parker. I'm tired of running, I just don't…" he sighed again. Parker leaned in to him and stroke his face, too.

"Does it sound selfish to you?"

"Jarod, if a word doesn't suit you at all, that is _selfish_."

"Since Ethan's death I've been thinking a lot. About my life, about us. I thought about Tommy, your mother, Kyle…Life is so short, Parker. We already wasted forty years. I don't want to spend the rest of my days running from the Centre. Not anymore."

"I guess it wouldn't be any fun now that I'm not the one who's chasing, would it?"

Jarod laughed and kissed her to thank her. Then he leaned his forehead on hers.

"I couldn't live without you. I still can't believe you took that turning point, Parker, but now that you're here, I want to make it count. Make you understand it's gonna be worth it."

"It's already worth it, Jar. You deserve a life more than anyone else. You helped so many people, maybe it's time that you help yourself."

He nodded, close to the tears.

"I should cut out the dramatics and not confess you this, but…I am very proud of all the stunts you did out there, helping the little guy and defending the weak and the abused. You did a very good job all these years. You used your skills to help others, without asking anything in return."

"I just want to know who I am. I just want to find my mother…" he sobbed between the tears. Parker took his face in her hands and stared at him.

"You know, a few weeks ago a very annoying lab rat told me that it was time to make myself the gift my father never gave me, the truth."

"What a silly little lab rat", he replied. They both chuckled and Parker kissed him with joy.

"Well, with you I already found the only truth that matters. We'll find your mother, Jar, I promise. And we'll save my little brother. After that, if you want to disappear, that's what we're just going to do. I'm pretty sure that the Centre won't find us, if we don't leave clues as you did with Sydney and me."

Jarod grimaced, "I did it just because I wanted to see you. I couldn't stand your absence in my life. The runaway-pretender leaving bread crumbs for his pursuers. Gee, what a twisted basket case I was?"

Parker burst out laughing, " _Melodramatic fool, neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it._ "

Jarod squeezed his eyes the way he did whenever someone made a reference to something he didn't understand. Parker knew that when _Green Day_ 's breakthrough album _Dookie_ was realesed in 1994, the pretender hadn't escaped yet. So she smiled in answer, "Never mind."

* * *

 **Chapter End Notes** :

I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. The story is very far from being over, as I promised. Stay tuned :P


	10. When the Past Comes Back to Haunt You

**TODAY**

* * *

Jarod spent the rest of the morning doing what he'd always done best: having a close eye on Lyle's activities. Parker didn't know anything about it, but Jarod monitored his pretended _brother in law_ every day. Lyle had made a promise ten years before, but Jarod didn't trust him to keep it. He still saw Lyle as the killer of his brothers, nothing more, nothing less.

As soon as Parker had informed him that she was pregnant with their second child, Jarod had put hidden cameras in Lyle's and Raines' offices.

Within the last ten years, he'd always kept an eye on them. That was the reason he had found out that Raines had died for a respiratory failure in 2011 or that Lyle was still holding up his end of the bargain. And that oddly nobody at the Centre seemed to be looking for Jarod and Parker.

Yes, the facility was still working. And yes, they still did tremendous things. But Jarod wasn't interested anymore. He was content, as long as Lyle didn't threaten the happiness they had eventually found. Lyle had practically become a puppet in the hands of the Triumvirate. He felt bored and useless, his life wasn't as exciting as it used to be a few years before. He'd also suffered the blow after Raines' death because now he was alone against the Africans.

How did the Centre manage to survive without his skills, Jarod didn't know. And he didn't care at all. He just wanted to be left alone with his family.

* * *

Parker entered the living room to find a very focused pretender looking at his laptop. When she silently moved behind him, she realized that those weren't the videos of the school cameras. On the screen there were images of another place, a room she knew pretty well because she had been its former occupant.

"What the hell – "

Jarod turned around fast and closed the laptop screen, but it was too late: Parker had seen everything. She moved over him and pushed him aside."Parker, wait…"She glared at him and Jarod sighed, then he let her open the screen. The videos of Lyle's office cameras appeared under their nose again.

"When did you think you'd tell me about this!?" she yelled at him.

"You weren't supposed to find out, Parker. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? For this? Or for not telling me?"

Jarod sighed again, "Parker, I didn't want to upset you."

Parker shook her head and started to pace around, "I really don't get it, Jarod. Ten years ago you were the one who told me we had to let the Centre go, that we had everything we needed. That you didn't want to hear or talk about the Centre anymore."

"And I meant it, Parker!" he replied, standing up.

"But you put cameras all over the country to control Lyle?!"

Jarod smiled, she always exagerated things when she got angry at him, "Not – all over the country, just in his office. And his house. And…his car."

Parker couldn't believe her ears.

"I thought you'd never lie to me, lab rat."

Jarod shook his head and took her arms in his hands. "I've never lied to you, Parker. I didn't want you to worry, this was just a reasonable precaution."

" _Reasonable_? Do you even know what that word means?"

Jarod grinned, "I'm sorry, Parker. I wanted us to live our lives without thinking about the past. Everything was fine, we were happy and safe. Nothing mattered more, to me."

Parker stared at him, she still felt betrayed, "You should have told me. See? The past always comes back to haunt us…"

"No, it doesn't." Jarod replied sharply. "I assure you that Lyle is not up to something. That's how I knew that man you saw at school was not following Lyle's orders. Your sick brother is still having the time of his life, he's just more annoyed and bored. He also put on a few pounds." Jarod told her, his hand pointing at his computer. Parker smiled and chuckled, the sign Jarod was waiting for to kiss her.

"Sometimes I do hate you, Boy Genius."

"No, you don't." He purred back.

Parker's smile disappeared again and Jarod sensed her mood changing. "What?"

"I don't know, Jar. Maybe he doesn't have anything to do with Lyle, but I still have that feeling…I think it's my…"

"Inner sense?"

Parker nodded and lowered her head again. She hadn't been warned by her inner sense in years. Whenever it started to send her signals, it was never good news.

"I need to talk to him."

Jarod opened his eyes widely and snapped at her, "What?!"

"I need to know that he really doesn't have anything to do with this!" she answered.

"So what, you're going to the Centre, walking inside your old office as if you'd never run away?" he urged her.

"I'll do whatever it takes! I won't let that bastard ruin our lives again! If he's behind that man, I'm going to find out!"

Jarod sighed and passed his hands through his hair. Parker stared at him, he was rubbing his face. He looked worried.

"Remember the last time we saw him?"

"How could I forget?" she huffed back.

"So you remember our deal."

"I don't need you to remind me, Jarod!" she shouted.

"Well, I think you do! Because your brother is still the chairman of the Centre and even if now he's nothing more than a puppet under the control of the Triumvirate…I still don't trust him."

"It's been ten years. Jarod. He never betrayed his word."

"So, now you're defending him?!" Jarod questioned her, shocked.

Parker sighed in exasperation, "I'm not! But I must do this, Jarod!"

"Why?" he urged her again.

"Because we're too old to run, Jarod."

The pretender didn't answer. He just stood there, staring at the love of his life, knowing that there was nothing he could do to make Parker change her mind.


End file.
